New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West

by David E. Sanger

Burns left, fairly confident that Baradar “understood the message that I was delivering.” But no sooner had he returned to the United States than his worst fear came true. Just before 1 p.m. local time on August 26, the Pentagon received an intelligence warning that an ISIS attack would be launched that day—likely within the hour. In preparation, stretchers and emergency vehicles were set up to accommodate a mass casualty event. For the rest of the afternoon, nothing happened. The Marines continued to process evacuees. But at approximately 6 p.m. in Kabul, an Islamic State militant named Abdul Rahman al-Logari, who had escaped from prison during the chaos of the Taliban takeover, loaded himself up with twenty-five pounds of explosives, wrapped in ball bearings and other shrapnel, and detonated it in the packed crowds outside Abbey Gate.