There was an explosion outside Kabul airport amid ongoing evacuations from Afghanistan, Pentagon says

• There was an explosion outside a gate at Kabul airport amid ongoing evacuations.
• The Pentagon confirmed early reports on Thursday but declined to provide any details.
• It is unclear how many people may have been injured or killed.

There has been at least one explosion outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, where efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan are ongoing, the Pentagon said Thursday.

"We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement. "Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can."

The explosion occurred outside Abbey Gate, where many people have crowd daily trying to get into the airport to get out of Afghanistan.

There are multiple reports that a number of Afghans were injured as well as reports that US service members were also hurt in the incident.

"We can confirm that the explosion near the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport has resulted in an unknown number of casualties," Kirby said.

A US official told Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin that a suicide bomber launched a "complex" attack with an improvised explosive device and that there was a firefight.

Politico reporter Lara Seligman, citing two sources, also said the cause was a suicide bomber, and three US officials told CNN reporters that this "appears to be a suicide attack." Other reports have said the same.

Following news of the first explosion, there were reports of a second explosion. The Pentagon has not yet confirmed that a second explosion took place.

Over the past few days, US officials has repeatedly expressed serious concerns about possible terrorist activity around the airport. In particular, there have been concerns about ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden warned of this threat on Tuesday, saying that "every day we're on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both US and allied forces and innocent civilians."

The US Embassy in Afghanistan sent out an alert on Wednesday urging US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport due to "security threats" outside the gates.

A senior US official told The New York Times the embassy security alert was issued in response to "specific" and "credible" threats posed by ISIS-K, a common enemy for both the US and the Taliban.

It is not clear at this time if ISIS-K was involved in Thursday's incident, which is increasingly looking like an attack, though that has not been officially confirmed.

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