Former U.S. military translator describes Kabul airport attack

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — A former U.S. military translator in Kabul who was at the airport during Thursday’s bombing is speaking out about the horrific attack. Boston 25 News is protecting his identity and will not be identifying him for safety reasons.

“If you’ve seen in some movies, there is an explosion or something like that and people are running everywhere…it wasn’t like a film scene. It was real,” he said over Zoom.

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The translator said that parents were separated from children and that ambulances didn’t arrive for at least 30 minutes, causing people to bleed out.

“Those people who were hurt, those people who were injured, those people who were bleeding, they were asking for help, but it wasn’t a situation where anyone could help them,” he said. “There wasn’t anyone to pick them up from that canal. People were shouting, people were crying in the canal who were injured, who were asking for help and there wasn’t anyone to help them for a while.”

He also said no one was checking bags, making the horrific attack possible.

“There wasn’t any checking at all. Not by Americans, not by the Taliban, not by anyone,” he said.

After running and hiding in an alley to wait for his friend, he said rumors of an additional explosion created further panic.

“No one is believing that we have a future,” he said. “Twenty years. People struggled, people studied, people have learned a lot of things, but now they’re running from this country. They don’t believe in a future for this country.”

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