The British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary has confirmed that two British citizens and the child of a British citizen were murdered in the Kabul airport bombing.
“I was deeply saddened to learn that two British nationals and the child of another British national were killed by yesterday’s terror attack, with two more injured,” said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in a statement published on the British government’s official website.
“These were innocent people and it is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists,” he said.
At least 95 civilians and 13 U.S. military personnel are reported to have been killed in the blast at the gates of the Afghan airport, which has been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), an Afghan franchise of the jihadist organisation which once boasted a sprawling physical caliphate across much of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
“Yesterday’s despicable attack underlines the dangers facing those in Afghanistan and reinforces why we are doing all we can to get people out. We are offering consular support to their families,” Raab said.
“We will not turn our backs on those who look to us in their hour of need, and we will never be cowed by terrorists,” he added — although the British presence in Afghanistan and the associated airlift evacuation is in fact due to come to an end ahead of the American withdrawal on August 31st, and Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, is now praising the Taliban — responsible for many terror attacks on British nationals — as honourable “country boys” who “want an Afghanistan that is inclusive for all,” despite all evidence to the contrary.