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Kabul airport blast: Death toll nears 200

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Kabul airport. File Photo

The death toll in the Kabul airport blast neared 200 with hundreds more wounded, keeping the city’s hospitals grimly busy all day, international media reported.

The blast was reported on Thursday afternoon, piling an adjacent sewage canal with corpses. Health officials had said at least 170 civilians had been killed, and likely more.

The blast also killed 13 US armed forces personnel and one of the first to be identified was Rylee McCollum, 20, a Marine who had been on his first overseas deployment, NYT reported quoted the victim’s father as saying.

The report quoting defense officials said he was one of 10 Marines, two soldiers, and one Navy medic killed in the blast.

It was not only fear that trimmed the crowd at the airport on Friday, what had been a constant mass since the Taliban assumed power nearly two weeks ago.

Flights to evacuate people already within the airport resumed soon after the bombing. But the airport itself was largely locked down Friday.

The US State Department officials have warned people to stay away from the airport and shelter in place because of new threats.

The US government said that more than 100,000 people have been evacuated so far.

Quoting a US military official, the report said that flights to begin the final evacuation of US military personnel and equipment were beginning Friday night.

 

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