What happened

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt at Abbey Gate, Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, on 26 August 2021, during the US-led evacuation that followed the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan on 15 August. Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility; the bomber was identified as Abdul Rahman al-Logari. The attack killed 182 people, including 13 US service members (11 Marines, one Army soldier and one Navy corpsman) and 169 Afghan civilians, with more than 150 injured; subsequent gunfire added to the casualties, though later investigations suggested some deaths may have resulted from defensive fire or panic rather than the bomb itself. Multiple governments had issued terror warnings beforehand, and President Biden had said an attack was 'highly likely.' In response, the US conducted retaliatory airstrikes on 27 and 29 August; investigations later confirmed the 29 August strike mistakenly killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, rather than ISIS-K operatives as initially claimed. This record introduces this major, globally covered airport attack to the site's airbase/airport-strike coverage, added following the extension of the backfill window back to 2020.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.