Pentagon: Blast outside Kabul airport, no word on casualties
Photo: Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air Force via AP. In this image provided by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, load people being evacuated from Afghanistan onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021.
An explosion has gone off outside the Kabul airport.
Thousands of people have flocked there as they try to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
Western nations had warned of a possible attack there in the waning days of a massive airlift.
The Pentagon confirmed the blast Thursday, with no immediate word on casualties.
Several countries urged people to avoid the airport earlier in the day, with one saying there was a threat of a suicide bombing. But just days before the evacuation effort ends, few appeared to heed the call.