NATO chief condemns 'horrific terrorist attack' outside Kabul airport

BRUSSELS

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday condemned the explosions outside the Kabul airport, calling them a "terrorist attack."

“I strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack outside Kabul airport,” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter, expressing his sympathy to “all those affected and their loved ones.”

He stressed that NATO’s priority remained “to evacuate as many people to safety as quickly as possible.”

Two explosions occurred outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

At least 10 people were killed and some 50 injured in the bombings, according to media reports.

Thousands of people are waiting at the airport for being evacuated, while large crowds gathered outside the airport, hoping to get on a plane.

US forces are in control of the airport as evacuations continue ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline -- the only area of the country still under US control.

The Belgian government stopped on Wednesday evacuations because “the daytime security situation has very significantly deteriorated” in Kabul and they had received intelligence on “an imminent threat of suicide bomb attacks,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said earlier on Thursday.