2021 Kabul airport attack carried out using single explosive device: US

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has said the August 2021 attack at the Kabul airport that killed 183 people, including 13 American service members, was carried out by using a single explosive device.

The attack took place on August 26, 2021 at the airport's Abbey Gate as US service members worked to evacuate American citizens and Afghans following the fall of the country to the Taliban.

The victims comprised 170 Afghan civilians and among the American personnel were 11 Marines, a soldier and a sailor. Forty-five others were also injured.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terror group's Khorasan unit (IS-K), that has carried out several other bombings since the Taliban came to power.

While presenting the findings of an investigation into the attack, Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command, said on Thursday: "The investigation found that a single explosive device killed at least 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US service members by explosively directing ball bearings through a packed crowd into our men and women at Abbey Gate.

"The investigation found no definitive proof that anyone was ever hit or killed by gunfire either US or Afghan. This conclusion was based upon the careful consideration of sworn testimony of more than 100 witnesses, and especially those witnesses and Observation Towers — both American and British — who were in locations unaffected by the blast, and that had commanding views of the scene before, during and after the explosive attack."

McKenzie went on the say that at the time of the attack, "the best information we had indicated that it was a complex attack by both a suicide bomber and IS-K gunmen".

"We now know that the explosively fired ball bearings cause wounds that look like gunshots, and when combined with a small number of warning shots, that lead many to assume that a complex attack had occurred.

"The fact that this investigation has contradicted our first impression demonstrates to me that the team went into this investigation with an open mind in search of the truth," he added.