Multiple people have been killed in at least two explosions near Kabul airport in Afghanistan following warnings a strike would be launched in the final phase of the evacuation effort, report agencies..
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed two blasts occurred in a "complex attack" outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, and there were "a number of US and civilian casualties".
A Taliban official said at least 13 people, including children, had died.
The US military confirmed two large explosions Thursday outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, where the United States and other countries have been evacuating tens of thousands of people.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said at least 13 people were killed and 15 wounded in twin suicide attacks outside the airport, which has been the centre of the effort to help people flee Afghanistan.
A US official said at least three service members were among the dead.
A surgical hospital run by an Italian charity said it was treating more than 60 wounded, with at least six people reported as being killed in the attack.
US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the explosion, according to a White House official. Biden was in a meeting with security officials about the situation in Afghanistan when the explosion was first reported, according to a person familiar with the matter.
One of the explosions happened at the airport's main Abbey Gate, where thousands of people have massed over the past 12 days hoping to be evacuated after the militants seized power, and an unconfirmed death toll of 13 people including children was given by a Taliban official.
Other reports located the second explosion close to the Baron Hotel near the gate, which Western nations had used to stage some evacuations.
An AFP journalist in Kabul saw a plume of smoke rising into the sky from a site near the airport.
“When people heard the explosion there was total panic. The Taliban then started firing in the air to disperse the crowd at the gate,” a witness told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“I saw a man rushing with an injured baby in his hands,” he added.
US and allied officials have said they had intelligence that suicide bombers tied to the Afghan arm of Daesh — the so-called Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) — were threatening to attack the airport ahead of Washington's August 31 deadline to finalize the evacuation.
The Taliban, whose fighters are guarding the perimeter outside the airport, are enemies of the affiliate.
"Our guards are also risking their lives at Kabul airport, they face a threat too from the Islamic State group," said a Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity and before the reports of the explosion.