Britain to end Afghanistan evacuations in 'matter of hours'

London, Aug 27: Britain is mulling to complete its evacuations out of Afghanistan "in a matter of hours".

"It is with deep regret that not everyone has been able to be evacuated during this process," defence minister Ben Wallace said in a statement.

Ben Wallace told Sky News there would be "eight or nine" evacuation flights on Friday, and they will be the last. British troops will leave over the next few days. The Spanish government said it has ended its evacuation operation.

Thursday's bombings near Kabul's international airport killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops, Afghan and US officials said, in the deadliest day for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.

The IS branch, known as The Islamic State-Khorasan Province after a name for the region from antiquity, said in its claim of responsibility that it targeted American troops and their Afghan allies. The statement carried a photo of what the militant group said was the bomber who carried out the attack.

IS also said the bomber managed to get past Taliban security checkpoints to come within 5 metres (yards) of a gathering of US soldiers, translators and collaborators before detonating his explosives.

It said Taliban were also among the casualties. The extremist IS group has battled the Taliban, which it views as traitorous for agreeing to a peace deal with the United States.

The statement also said the bomber got around US security measures and that the camp that was targeted was where US forces were gathering paperwork for those who've worked with the military.