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Who’s Responsible for the 2021 Kabul Airport Bombing?

Dr. Munr Kazmir
5 min readApr 13, 2023

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During the terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghan civilians, the Taliban was responsible for security. Who was responsible for the Taliban?

A pro-Panjshir, anti-Taliban caravan kicks off from the Capitol on Labor Day. September 7, 2021. (Photo: Brett Davis)

“My body was overwhelmed from the trauma of the blast,” the wounded veteran’s moving testimony brought some members of Congress close to tears in March. “My abdomen had been ripped open. Every inch of my exposed body took ball bearings and shrapnel.”

It was the beginning of a long-overdue reckoning on the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

“Sgt. Vargas-Andrews, 25, was one of several US military personnel tasked with protecting Kabul’s airport on 26 August 2021, when two suicide bombers attacked crowds of Afghans trying to flee the Taliban during the US evacuation,” reported the BBC on March 9, 2023. “Thirteen US soldiers died in the bombing, along with 170 Afghan civilians.”

“In emotional testimony, he described being thrown in the air during the bombing and opening his eyes to see his comrades dead or lying unconscious around him,” explained the BBC.

“There was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence,” Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andress told Congressional lawmakers, his voice breaking: “I see the faces of all those we could not save, those we left…

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