The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for bombing on Thursday outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, according to media reports.

Reports from Reuters suggested that the responsibility for attack was claimed by the Islamist group on its Amaq News Agency’s Telegram channel.

The news comes as reports of at least a dozen United States military officials being killed in the explosions surface. The incident, which has also claimed multiple civilian lives, has so far killed nearly 60 people and injured 150, according to reports from BBC.

The statement on the Telegram channel, “A suicide bomber from the Islamist militant group “managed to reach a large gathering of translators and collaborators with the American army at ‘Baran Camp’ near Kabul Airport and detonated his explosive belt among them, killing about 60 people and wounding more than 100 others, including Taliban fighters.”

Earlier on Thursday, officials from the United States said that they “definitely believed” that the Islamic State was behind the attack.

The death of the 12 service members on Thursday marks the first fatalities faced by the United States in Afghanistan since February last year.

The temporary halt in the killings has been majorly attributed to a deal signed between the Taliban and administration of former US President Donald Trump that included a vow from the Taliban forces to not attack the country’s troops, according to reports from the Washington Post.

What is Islamic State-Khorasan?

Soon after the Islamic State, known as ISIS or ISIS, declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014, breakaway fighters from the Pakistan Taliban joined the militants in Afghanistan to form a regional chapter. The group pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

The Islamic State-Khorasan was formally recognised by the Islamic State leadership in 2015 after it established control over northeastern Afghanistan, especially in Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan provinces. The group also managed to establish sleeper cells in other parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, say United Nations monitors.