GoPro video taken by a Marine at Kabul airport casts doubt on the official Pentagon investigation into a suicide bombing 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 who acted alone.
But the new video, obtained by CNNraises new questions and suggests that far more gunshots were heard in the aftermath than admitted.
A dozen U.S. service members described the gunfire, with one saying the first salvo came from an area with U.S. Marines near the site of the explosion.
“It wasn’t one-pieces and twos,” the Marine said. “It was a tremendous amount of gunfire.”
CNN has obtained video taken by a Marine stationed at Hamid Karzai International Airport on the day a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 160 Afghans in August 2021.
A local doctor also told the news organization that he pulled bullets from the wounded and that dozens of Afghans died from gunshot wounds.
The Pentagon has rejected previous claims that some victims were killed by gunfire, saying troops who reported being shot were confused or concussed by the blast.
The attack tragically ended the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan after a 20-year war.
US forces scrambled 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 blast at 5:36 PM on August 26 at one of the airport gates was the worst attack on US troops and Afghan nationals in more than a decade.
An Islamic State suicide bomber detonated a backpack filled with ball bearings, causing a massacre.
Witnesses reported hearing gunshots after the explosion.
The official investigation concluded that American and British forces fired three near-simultaneous warning shots, hitting no one.
The US Central Command later ordered an additional investigation, amid reports that the bomber had been identified before the blast and that the attack could have been stopped.
The Pentagon has released overhead images showing the location of the Abbey Gate blast, as well as areas where British and American forces opened fire
The heaviest hits occurred within a 50-meter blast zone, close to a sniper tower
Afghans trying to flee the Taliban were squeezed into a canal as a line of Marines held back the rest of the crowd. The worst casualties occurred in this area under the sniper tower at the top of this photo, released by the Ministry of Defense on Friday.
It found the reports were likely false and agreed that a lone ISIS-K bomber was responsible.
The video footage obtained by CNN complicates matters. It contains eleven blasts after the explosion, amounting to almost four minutes of gunfire, contrary to the Pentagon’s description of three “nearly simultaneous” episodes.
It shows Marines taking cover in the aftermath of the blast. At one point they choke on CS gas released from a broken canister.
You hear someone say, “I got that on film, dude.”
An audio forensics expert who reviewed the footage for CNN counted at least 43 shots.
Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Rob Lodewick said the two investigations looked at whether the bombing was part of a “complex attack” – the name for an explosion followed by gunmen opening fire.
“The Supplemental Review found no new evidence of a complex attack, and revealed no new claims of fire going out after the explosion,” he said. ‘Consequently, the Supplemental Review found no material impact on the original findings of the Abbey Gate inquiry.’
A British spokesman said his troops fired warning shots over the crowd to prevent a wave.
The attack took place during the operation to evacuate foreigners and vulnerable Afghans
CNN previously reported interviews with more than a dozen Afghans who said they had seen or heard gunfire.
“I saw people injured in the explosion trying to get up, but they shot at them,” said Shogofa Hamidi, whose sister Morsal was shot in the face.
Dr. Sayeed Ahmadi, then director of Wazir Akhbar Khan Hospital in Kabul, said: ‘Explosion injuries are associated with serious wounds and many holes in the bodies.
“But people who were shot had only one or two holes in the chest or head.”
CNN also spoke to 10 Marines, many of whom described hearing gunshots.
Sergeant Romel Finley, who received a Purple Heart for wounds sustained during the attack, told the Brrks YouTube channel, where Marines are interviewed: “My platoon sergeant runs past us and says, ‘Go back to that wall and shoot back at those motherfuckers . “So I thought, we’re in a gunfight too.”
Christian Sanchez, another Marine survivor, told the same channel: “All I see are flashes. And all I heard was a ringing sound. Like everything should be ringing and fucking flashing.
‘And I’m starting to hear snaps. And I’m starting to realize it’s a damn guy shooting at me. And I just started shooting at that guy.”