At least 72 civilians and 13 US service members were killed on Thursday when two suicide bombers and a gunman struck one of the main entrances to Kabul’s international airport, just hours after western intelligence agencies warned of an imminent threat to the ongoing, urgent evacuation operation. Children were among those who died. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks. Amaq news agency said on its Telegram channel that an IS member called Abdul Rahman al-Logari carried out “the martyrdom operation near Kabul Airport”. The name suggests the killer was Afghan. The IS branch responsible for the attack is known as The Islamic State-Khorasan Province, after a name for the region from antiquity. It said in its claim of responsibility that it targeted American troops and their Afghan allies. Islamic State claims responsibility for Kabul airport blasts Read more The attack marks deadliest day for US troops in more than a decade. Thursday’s attacks marked the deadliest day for US troops in Afghanistan since 6 August 2011, and the first military deaths since February 2020. Joe Biden vowed revenge when he spoke briefly at the White House on Thursday afternoon. “We will not forget,” he said, as he vowed to “hunt down” the people behind the attacks. He held firm on the 31 August deadline and said that the US would get any Americans left in Afghanistan out of the country. The Islamic State leaders who ordered the attacks would be found “without large military operations”, he said. American forces in Kabul are bracing for more Islamic State attacks while winding up their evacuation mission, US officials say. Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, head of the US military’s Central Command, told a news briefing, “We believe it is their desire to continue these attacks and we expect those attacks to continue – and we’re doing everything we can to be prepared.” US secretary of state Antony Blinken confirmed 100,000 people have now been evacuated from Kabul. In a statement, he called the bombings “a devastating reminder of the dangerous conditions in which our service members and diplomats are operating as we conclude the United States’ 20-year military mission in Afghanistan”. General Frank McKenzie also said the US is prepared to take action against those responsible for the Kabul attack. Mckenzie said that cooperation with the Taliban had probably thwarted earlier attacks. Responding to the attacks, McKenzie insisted the evacuation operation would go on. US flags being flown at half-staff at Capitol. House speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered the flags at the US Capitol in Washington to be flown at half-staff “in honour of the US service members and others” killed in the attack. A blast heard in Kabul after the terror attacks was a controlled explosion by US military who were destroying ammunition, according to a Taliban spokesperson, via Reuters. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry rejected the attacks as “incompatible with all religious principles and moral and human values”. The ministry said it stood “with the Afghan people” and offered “condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and the Afghan people”. UK prime minister Boris Johnson said of the UK’s ongoing evacuation effort, “we’re going to keep going until the last moment”, despite the bombings. French President Emmanuel Macron has offered “his condolences to the families of the American and Afghan victims” and saluted “the heroism of those who are on the ground to carry out the evacuation operations” in response to the attacks. He also pledged to see the evacuations “through to the end”.