A GoPro video recorded by a Marine at Kabul airport casts doubt on the official Pentagon investigation into a suicide attack that killed 13 Americans and more than 160 Afghans during the chaotic 2021 evacuation.
The Defense Department has since said the deaths were caused by an ISIS-K suicide bomber acting alone.
But the new video, obtained by cnnraises new questions and suggests that many more shots were heard afterwards than has been admitted.
A dozen U.S. military personnel described the gunfire, and one said the first volley came from a U.S. Marine area near the explosion site.
“It wasn’t monkeys and twos,” the Marine said. “It was a massive volume of gunfire.”
CNN obtained video filmed by a Marine stationed at Hamid Karzai International Airport on the day a suicide bomber killed 13 US personnel and more than 160 Afghans in August 2021.
A local doctor also told the news organization that he removed bullets from the wounded and that dozens of Afghans died from gunshot wounds.
The Pentagon has dismissed earlier claims that some of the victims were killed by gunfire and said soldiers who reported being attacked were confused or suffered concussions from the explosion.
The attack brought a tragic end to the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan after a 20-year war.
US troops went to great lengths to protect Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Taliban took control of the capital in August 2021, as thousands of foreigners and tens of thousands of Afghans tried to flee.
The explosion that occurred at 5:36 pm on August 26 at one of the airport gates was the worst attack against US troops and Afghan citizens in more than a decade.
A suicide bomber from the Islamic State affiliate detonated a backpack full of ball bearings, causing carnage.
Witnesses reported hearing gunshots after the explosion.
The official investigation concluded that American and British forces fired three nearly simultaneous bursts of warning shots that hit no one.
U.S. Central Command subsequently ordered a supplemental review amid reports that the attacker had been identified before the explosion and that the attack may have been stopped.
The Pentagon released aerial images showing the location of the explosion at Abbey Gate, as well as the areas where British and American forces opened fire.
Those most affected were within a 50-meter explosion zone, near a sniper tower.
Afghans trying to flee the Taliban were crowded into a canal, while a line of marines held back the rest of the crowd. The worst casualties were concentrated in this area beneath the sniper tower at the top of this image, released Friday by the Department of Defense.
He found that the reports were probably wrong and agreed that a single ISIS-K bomber was responsible.
The video obtained by CNN complicates matters. It contains 11 bursts of gunfire after the explosion, representing nearly four minutes of gunfire, in contrast to the Pentagon’s description of three “nearly simultaneous” episodes.
It shows the Marines running for cover after the explosion. At one point they choke on CS gas released from a broken canister.
You can hear one say, ‘I’ve got it on tape, mate.’
An audio forensic expert, who reviewed the footage for CNN, counted a minimum of 43 gunshots.
Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Rob Lodewick said the two investigations examined whether the bombing was part of a “complex attack,” the name for an explosion followed by gunmen opening fire.
“The Supplementary Review found no new evidence of a complex attack, and uncovered no new claims of outgoing fire after the explosion,” he said. “Consequently, the supplementary review found no materialistic impact on the original conclusions of the Abbey Gate investigation.”
A British spokesman said its troops had fired warning shots over the crowd to prevent a surge.
The attack occurred during the evacuation operation of foreign citizens and vulnerable Afghans.
CNN previously reported on interviews with more than a dozen Afghans who said they saw or heard gunshots.
“I saw people who were injured in the explosion trying to get up, but they were shot,” said Shogofa Hamidi, whose sister Morsal was shot in the face.
Dr Sayeed Ahmadi, then director of Wazir Akhbar Khan hospital in Kabul, said: ‘Blast injuries lead to serious injuries and many holes in the bodies.
“But the people who were shot only had one or two holes in their chest or head.”
CNN also spoke with 10 Marines, many of whom described hearing gunshots.
Sergeant. Romel Finley, who received a Purple Heart for wounds suffered in the attack, told the YouTube channel Brrks, which interviews Marines: “My platoon sergeant ran past us and said, ‘Go back to that wall and shoot “Then I thought, ‘We’re in a shootout too.’
Christian Sánchez, another Navy survivor, told the same channel: ‘All I see are flashes. And all I could hear was the doorbell. As if everyone heard ringing and blinking.
‘And I start hearing clicking sounds. And I’m starting to realize that that’s a fucking guy shooting at me. And I started shooting the guy.