TORONTO – Perfect timing. At 8 am today, the head of the Canadian Armed Forces, General Wayne Eyre, announced that “Canada’s evacuation efforts in Afghanistan have ended”: Canadian personnel left Kabul “eight hours ago”. Less than three hours later, at the Kabul airport a suicide bomber (two, according to American and Russian sources) blows himself up: forty dead (including children) and dozens of wounded. Among the victims, also US Marines, as confirmed on Twitter by John Kirby from the Pentagon Press Secretary.

Just in time, one might say, despite the “push and pull” of recent days, in which on the one hand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau affirmed that Canada would remain in Afghanistan after the date set by the Taliban with their ultimatum (“everyone out by August 31”) and on the other “his” ministers denied him by stating that the Canadian evacuation operations would be completed before the end of the month,”as the United States decided”, as underlined by the Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan in the press conference two days ago, the same one in which the Minister of Women, Maryam Monsef, called the Taliban “our brothers”.

The announcement from the Canadian general came, we said, early in the morning.

Wayne Eyre pointed out that a total of around 3,700 people had been evacuated from Canada since the start of operations until the night between Wednesday and today. The general then added that he had received “prayers” from desperate Afghans to escape the violence of the Taliban. “They tear our souls apart”, he said. “They have witnessed horrible things and their desperation breaks our hearts. The feeling of helplessness and guilt about having to leave people behind can be overwhelming”. He would have liked Canada to stay longer, but “there is no country in the world other than the United States that has the ability to project force to the other side of the world. Canada does not have the ability to do so unilaterally, nor any other country besides the US “. And the Americans, as is well known, will respect the ultimatum of the Taliban.

But the Canadian evacuation, it seems, was by no means over. A Global Affairs Canada official, as Globalnews.ca reports, revealed that some Canadians have been left behind. But he did not provide a precise number of how many remained in Afghanistan, merely adding that “now it is up to the people to try to protect themselves and their families”.

Today, however, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau renewed Canada’s promise to help Afghans. “Our engagement with Afghanistan is not over”, he said. “This particular moment is over and it’s heartbreaking to see. But there is much more to do and Canada will continue to be there”.

And while the prime minister spoke, the tragedy was taking place in Kabul, with the suicide bomber (or the bombers), the dead (the number of 40 is unfortunately being updated) and the wounded. The attack was allegedly launched by two suicide bombers: one blew himself up in a gate of the Kabul airport and a second, perhaps, near a hotel. An attack that had been widely expected: for two days the alarm of a possible attack at the Kabul airport had been circulating. And so it was.

The action was claimed by Isis-K, the Islamic State born around 2015 in the Afghan province of Khorasan and, in fact, even more extremist than the Taliban themselves. If possible.

In the photo above, injured people fleeing the Kabul airport after the attack: the images were posted by Omaid H. Sharifi on his Twitter profile (@OmaidSharifi)