US will transfer Kabul airport back to Afghan people: State Department

Washington [US], August 28 (ANI): The United States will transfer Kabul airport back to the Afghan people, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Friday (local time).

“Upon our departure, we will transfer the Kabul airport back to the Afghan people,” the State Department official said during a media briefing.

Earlier, the Taliban spokesperson said that the group has controlled parts of Kabul airport, as an August 31 deadline for the United States is about to end.

“Today, three important locations in the military part of Kabul airport were evacuated by the Americans and are under the control of the Islamic Emirate,” spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Pentagon said that the deadly attack outside Kabul airport the previous day was carried out by one suicide bomber and that there wasn’t a second explosion at a nearby hotel.

“I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber,” Army Major General Hank Taylor, deputy director of the joint staff for regional operations, told reporters at the Pentagon, The Hill reported.

Thursday’s bombing, which killed 13 US service members and at least 100 Afghans, took place “right at” the Abbey gate at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Defense officials initially said a second bombing had taken place outside the Baron Hotel, which is adjacent to the airfield and a key site in the effort to evacuate US and British citizens.

But on Friday, Taylor said Defense officials don’t know the source of that initial report.

“We’re not sure how that report was provided incorrectly, but we do know it’s not any surprise that the confusion of very dynamic events like this can cause information sometimes to be misreported or garbled,” he said. “Details are continuing to be collected,” The Hill reported. (ANI)