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EXCLUSIVE: Witnesses tell RT of ‘pandemonium’ as US troops ‘fired indiscriminately’ into crowd after Kabul airport suicide bombing ‘Americans opened fire fearing next explosion’: Witnesses of chaotic Kabul suicide bombing aftermath speak to RT
(about 4 hours later)
In the “pandemonium” that followed a suicide bombing at Kabul Airport, witnesses have told RT reporter Murad Gazdiev, US troops fired “indiscriminately” into the panicked crowd, with civilians shot in the head and stomach. In the pandemonium that followed the suicide bombing at Kabul Airport, witnesses told RT’s Murad Gazdiev they ran for their lives as the shooting started. One injured woman described US troops opening fire as civilians fled.
The bomb blast ripped through a crowd of people outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday, killing more than 150 people, including 13 American troops. In the chaos that followed the explosion, early reports from the ground suggested that American forces opened fire on the panicked crowd of Afghans at the airport gate.  Editor’s note: The previous version of this story included quotes based on an incorrect live translation of the people RT interviewed, stating that  the witnesses saw American troops “indiscriminately” shooting civilians. We have removed those quotes and added the correct translation of the accounts.
RT reporter Murad Gazdiev heard the gruesome details from eyewitnesses he spoke to, and he described the grisly events on Monday. The bomb blast ripped through a crowd of people outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday, killing more than 150 people, including 13 American troops. In the chaos that followed the explosion, early reports from the ground suggested that American forces opened fire – and that some of the rounds struck the panicked crowd of Afghans at the airport gate. 
“The American troops there at the gate were stood in a line, shoulder to shoulder,” he explained. “The ISIS suicide bomber...managed to get very very close to them, just metres away, and surrounding him was a crowd. People were jam packed together.” RT reporter Murad Gazdiev heard the gruesome details from eyewitnesses he spoke to in his Monday report. Some said they ran for their lives before seeing where the shots were coming from.
“Once his suicide vest went off, there was absolute pandemonium. People started running in all directions, including into the airport,” Gazdiev continued. “That is when American troops, according to the witnesses, began firing into the crowds. They began shooting indiscriminately.” “After the explosion, I fled. Many people were fleeing. I did not see who was shooting,” one woman who survived the blast told RT. “I fled to the road and heard both shooting and the sound of explosions.”
The gate where the bombing took place is hemmed in on two sides by concrete walls, a feature that likely amplified the effects of the blast. According to recent reports, troops at the airport had been told to expect an attack, and Gazdiev said that, in the panicked aftermath, they kept firing into the throng of people, “fearful that there could be more suicide bombers in the crowd.” “The Americans opened fire to protect themselves for fear of the next explosion,” Rahmana Akbari, whose neck and ear were injured in the blast, told RT. Her brother, Muhammad Jalil, was seriously injured and is now in a Kabul hospital’s ICU.
“We saw that they were shooting people in the stomach and in the head from all sides, not just into the air,” one witness told RT. “Mostly Americans were shooting.” “I'm not sure if an American bullet or shrapnel from an explosive device hit my brother’s temple. The Americans were on that side, I myself was in the ditch, just below from where the blast took place,” the woman said.
“The explosion killed few Afghans because it happened on the side where the Americans were,” another witness explained. “So people died in the crowd, with the shooting from different sides.” One of the patients brought to the local hospital had at least four bullet wounds in addition to multiple shrapnel injuries. The doctors could not save him.
Doctors Gazdiev spoke to described treating victims with wounds from both shrapnel and bullets. One victim was shot in the chest, abdomen, leg and hand, and later died in hospital. At least two others were admitted to hospital with bullet wounds. RT has asked the Pentagon for comment on allegations from “all over Kabul” that US troops shot into the crowd. The US military says it’s still “investigating,” which could take years.
“Others had no mark on them, but they were trodden underfoot” as the crowd fled from the scene, Gazdiev reported. Other witnesses described how some civilians were shot after they fell to the ground in the stampede. “We can’t confirm that and we’re certainly not in position to deny it either,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
The Pentagon has refused to either confirm or deny the details set out by Gazdiev. Such a policy is standard practice for the US military, whose own investigation into the incident may take more than a year to conclude. ISIS-K, a regional offshoot of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), claimed responsibility for the bombing.
ISIS-K, a regional offshoot of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terror group, claimed responsibility for the bombing. The scenes that played out at the airport on Thursday, coupled with a US response that saw two allegedly high-ranking ISIS-K members killed in one drone strike and an Afghan family and children wiped out in another, made for a bitter denouement to the US’ 20-year war in Afghanistan.
The scenes that played out at the airport on Thursday, coupled with a US response that saw two allegedly high-ranking ISIS-K members killed in one drone strike and an Afghan family and children wiped out in another, made for a bitter denouement to the US’ 20-year war in Afghanistan. After two weeks of haphazard evacuation, the final US troops and civilian staff are set to leave Kabul on Tuesday, with the Taliban back in power and warning of “consequences” should Tuesday’s deadline not be met. After two weeks of haphazard evacuation, the final US troops and civilian staff reportedly left Kabul just before midnight local time on Monday, with the Taliban back in power and warning of “consequences” should Tuesday’s deadline not be met.
The August 26 bombing claimed the lives of 14 US military members and at least 170 Afghan civilians – with estimates going as high as 200 – while another 200 were injured. Abbey Gate, where the bombing took place, is hemmed in on two sides by concrete walls, a feature that likely amplified the effects of the blast. According to recent reports, troops at the airport had been told to expect an attack.
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