ISIS-K BOMBS BLOWN AWAY
US drone hits car – but civilians feared dead
A US drone strike took out a bomb-laden car that was an “imminent ISIS-K threat” to the Kabul airport on Sunday — but the Pentagon acknowledged there may have been civilian casualties.
The strike successfully knocked out a vehicle packed with a “substantial amount of explosive material,” Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Central Command, said in a statement.
“US military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned overthe-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamid Karzai International airport,” Urban said.
“We are confident we successfully hit the target.”
He added, “Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”
Witnesses said the drone strike targeted two cars parked at a residential building near the airport. Two US military officials told The Associated Press that multiple suicide bombers were inside the vehicle that was targeted.
But an Afghan man told CNN that nine members of his family, including six children as young as 2, were killed in the strike.
The targeted vehicle was parked in a compound between two buildings near the airport and was struck by a Hellfire missile after individuals were seen loading explosives into the trunk, a senior US official said.
It appears the secondary explosion severely damaged one of the buildings next to the vehicle.
The brother of the civilians who were feared dead told CNN that they were “an ordinary family” with no ties to any terrorist organizations.
“We are not ISIS or Daesh and this was a family home — where my brothers lived with their families,” he told the network.
Urban later said the US military is “deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life.”
The drone attack drew criticism from the Taliban, who told CNN that it violated Afghan sovereignty.
Taliban spokesman Bilal Kareemi said the United States was “not right to conduct operations on other’s soil.”
“Whenever the US conducts such operations, we condemn them,” Kareemi told CNN.
The US assault was its second against ISIS-K in Kabul since Friday and comes as officials wind down the evacuation of tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies from the airport ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to withdraw.
President Biden on Saturday had warned that another attack was imminent within the next 24 to 48 hours.
Pentagon officials reiterated Sunday that the US will continue to strike at ISIS-K if other planned terror attacks are discovered.
The first US airstrike came Friday in retaliation for the ISIS-K bombing at the airport the day before, a suicide blast that killed more than 180 people, including 13 US service members assigned to the evacuation effort.
That retaliatory drone strike killed two terrorists who officials said helped plot the attack.
Evacuations of US citizens and Afghan allies continued over the weekend, with American government officials saying they believe they have “leverage” over the Taliban and will be able to complete the operation.
“That’s not about trust,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“That’s about the capabilities we have to hold the Taliban to the commitments that they have voiced directly and the commitments they have made publicly.”