U.S. says strike foiled bombing bid by ISIS
KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. drone strike Sunday blew up a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate before they could target the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul’s international airport, American officials said.
An Afghan official said the drone strike killed a number of civilians, including children, and the U.S. military said it was investigating the assertion.
The strike came two days before the U.S. is to conclude a two-week airlift of more than 114,000 Afghans and foreigners and withdraw the last of its troops, ending America’s longest war with the Taliban back in power.
The Afghan official who reported the slain civilians spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. Witnesses to the drone strike said it targeted cars parked at a residential building near the airport, killing or wounding several civilians. Officials had initially reported a separate rocket attack on a building near the airport, but it turned out to be the same event.
Dina Mohammadi said her extended family resided in the building and that several relatives were killed, including children. She did not immediately provide the names or ages of the deceased.
Karim, a district representative, said the strike ignited a fire that made it difficult to
rescue people. “There was smoke everywhere, and I took some children and women out,” he said.
Ahmaduddin, a neighbor, said he had collected the bodies of children after the strike, which set off more explosions inside the house. Like many Afghans, the two men each go by one name.
U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a military spokesman, had earlier said the military was investigating whether there were civilian casualties but that “we have no indications at this time.”
“We are confident we successfully hit the target,” Urban said. “Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”
The chief Taliban spokesman and people in Kabul who posted on social media said that both a house and a vehicle had been hit in a neighborhood just west of the airport and that several civilians had been killed.
“We are investigating the reason of the airstrike and the exact number of casualties,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesman.
A senior U.S. military official responded that the military was confident that no civilians had been in the vehicle but acknowledged that the detonation of the explosives in it could have caused “collateral damage.”
The strike came after an Islamic State suicide attack outside the airport Thursday killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. The U.S. carried out a drone strike elsewhere in the country Saturday, which it said killed two Islamic State members.
President Joe Biden had vowed to keep up the airstrikes, saying Saturday that another attack by the militants was “highly likely.” The State Department called the threat “specific” and “credible.”
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said earlier that the U.S. would continue strikes against the Islamic State and consider “other operations to go after these guys, to get them and to take them off the battlefield.” He added: “We will continue to bring the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan to make sure they do not represent a threat to the U.S.”
The Sunni extremists of the Islamic State, with links to the group’s more wellknown affiliate in Syria and Iraq, have carried out a series of attacks that mainly target Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim minority, including a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital in Kabul that killed newborns.
The Taliban have fought against the Islamic State affiliate in the past and have pledged not to allow Afghanistan to become a base for terror attacks.
The Taliban increased security around the airport after Thursday’s attack, clearing away the large crowds that had gathered outside the gates in hopes of joining the airlift.
EVACUATING AMERICANS
Sullivan said the U.S. has the capacity to evacuate the estimated 300 Americans who remain in the country and wish to leave.
“We moved out more than that number just yesterday,” Sullivan said. “So from our point of view, there is an opportunity right now for American citizens to come, to be admitted to the airport and to be evacuated safely and effectively.”
There also are roughly 280 people who have said they are Americans but who have told the State Department that they plan to remain in the country or are still undecided.
Sullivan said the U.S. does not plan to have an ongoing embassy presence after the withdrawal but will ensure “safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident” after Tuesday, as well as for “those Afghans who helped us.”
According to the latest totals, about 114,000 people have been evacuated since the Taliban takeover on Aug. 14, including approximately 2,900 on military and coalition flights during the 24 hours ending at 3 a.m. Sunday.
The U.S. State Department released a statement signed by about 100 countries, as well as NATO and the European Union, saying they had received “assurances” from the Taliban that people with travel documents would still be able to leave the country. The Taliban have said they will allow normal travel after the U.S. withdrawal is completed Tuesday and they assume control of the airport.
The statement provided no further details regarding the agreement or what, if any, action would be taken if the Taliban reneges.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was working with other countries to ensure that the airport functions normally after the withdrawal and that the Taliban allow people to travel freely.
The Taliban have given similar assurances in recent days, even as they have urged Afghans to remain and help rebuild the war-ravaged country.
Blinken also said that while the airport is critical, “there are other ways to leave Afghanistan, including by road, and many countries border Afghanistan.” The U.S., he said, is “making sure that we have in place all of the necessary tools and means to facilitate the travel for those who seek to leave Afghanistan” after Tuesday.
Blinken also continued to reject criticism that the administration was caught unprepared for the Taliban’s swift return to power and for the subsequent need to protect Afghans who worked with the United States during its two decades in the country, and to aid Afghans who oppose the extremist group.
“Our commitment to continue to help people leave Afghanistan who want to leave and who are not out by Sept. 1, that endures,” Blinken said. “There’s no deadline on that effort. And we have ways, we have mechanisms, to help facilitate the ongoing departure of people from Afghanistan if they choose to leave.”
Blinken denied that the U.S. has given a list of American citizens and Afghan allies to the Taliban.
“The idea that we’ve done anything to put at further risk those that we’re trying to help leave the country is simply wrong. And the idea that we shared lists of Americans or others with the Taliban is simply wrong,” Blinken said on “Meet the Press.”
Elaborating, Blinken said the U.S. had in limited situations shared some names with the Taliban, which is controlling security in a loose perimeter outside the Kabul airport, to assure those people could be taken into the airport.
Blinken’s comments came in the wake of anger from Republican lawmakers, conservative commentators and others after Politico reported that the U.S. had provided the Taliban with the names of American citizens, greencard holders and Afghan allies to ensure their exit from Afghanistan. The report led to accusations that the U.S. had put those Afghans in danger if they were left behind after the U.S. left the country.
SUPPORT FOR WOMEN
Hundreds of people marched to the White House on Sunday to show support for Afghan women and other vulnerable groups seeking safety amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The march came after what organizers called “20 painful years of occupation in Afghanistan” by the U.S.
Marchers — many wearing black “I stand with Afghan women” T-shirts and carrying matching signs — chanted “save Afghan women” as they headed to the White House to demand action from Biden. Some drivers honked in support.
They want the administration to ensure the safety of women in the ongoing evacuation efforts in Kabul, despite the “dangerous and inaccessible” airport and deadly bombing Thursday.
In a statement last week, Women’s March organizers said they were demanding “the swift creation of a process of evacuation for at-risk populations such as women, journalists, human rights activists, scholars at risk, teachers, judges, and civil servants.”
Members of Congress criticized the chaotic evacuation.
“We didn’t have to be in this rush-rush circumstance with terrorists breathing down our neck,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. “But it’s really the responsibility of the prior administration and this administration that has caused this crisis to be upon us and has led to what is without question a humanitarian and foreign policy tragedy.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the U.S. policy in Afghanistan, with 2,500 troops on the ground, had been working. “We were, in effect, keeping the lid on, keeping terrorists from reconstituting, and having a light footprint in the country,” he said.
McConnell scoffed at the idea that the U.S. has any leverage over the Taliban.
“They’re not particularly concerned about international pressure,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “These are barbarians who certainly are not motivated by what others may think of them, and they’ve got the neighboring countries that have actually been sympathetic to them.”
SINGER’S KILLING
The Taliban have pledged amnesty for all Afghans, even those who worked with the U.S. and its allies, and say they want to restore peace and security after decades of war. But many Afghans distrust the group, and there have been reports of executions and other human-rights abuses in areas under Taliban control.
The shooting of a folk singer in a region north of Kabul contributed to such fears. Fawad Andarabi’s family said the Taliban shot him for no reason, just days after they had searched his home and drank tea with him.
“He was innocent, a singer who only was entertaining people,” said his son, Jawad. “They shot him in the head on the farm.”
The shooting happened in the Andarabi Valley, for which the family is named, some 60 miles north of Kabul, where the Taliban battled local fighters even after seizing the capital. The Taliban say they have retaken the region, which is near mountainous Panjshir, the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces not under Taliban control.
Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said his group would investigate the shooting, without providing any further information. The Taliban banned music as un-Islamic when they last ruled the country.
Andarabi played the ghichak, a bowed lute, and sang traditional songs about his birthplace, his people and the country. A video online showed him at one performance, sitting on a rug with the mountains behind him.
“There is no country in the world like my homeland, a proud nation,” he sang. “Our beautiful valley, our great-grandparents’ homeland.”
Karima Bennoune, the United Nations special rapporteur on cultural rights, said she had “grave concern” over Andarabi’s killing. “We call on governments to demand the Taliban respect the #humanrights of #artists,” she tweeted.
Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, also decried the killing.
“There is mounting evidence that the Taliban of 2021 is the same as the intolerant, violent, repressive Taliban of 2001,” she tweeted. “Nothing has changed on that front.”
Information for this article was contributed by Kathy Gannon, Lolita C. Baldor, Tameem Akhgar, Joseph Krauss and Jon Gambrell of The Associated Press; by Jenna Portnoy, Miriam Berger, Amy B Wang, Dan Lamothe and Sean Sullivan of The Washington Post; and by David Zucchino of The New York Times.