US air strike stops IS car bomb in Kabul
THE US said it destroyed an explosiveladen vehicle with an air strike in Kabul on August 29, hours after President Joe Biden warned of another terror attack in the capital as a massive airlift of tens of thousands of Afghans entered its last days.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed the incident, saying a car bomb destined for the airport had been destroyed – and that a possible second strike had hit a nearby house.
The US said it had only struck the vehicle, but added that secondary blasts indicated “a substantial amount of explosive material”.
Local media reported possible civilian casualties, which the US said it was assessing.
And with just two days to go until the agreed-upon date for US withdrawal, the Taliban revealed that their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was in southern Afghanistan and planning to make a public appearance.
“He is present in Kandahar. He has been living there from the very beginning,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
“He will soon appear in public,” added deputy spokesman
Bilal Karimi of the leader, whose whereabouts have remained largely unknown and who has never made a public appearance.
The US air strike came after a suicide bomber from the Islamic State (IS) group on August 26 targeted US troops stopping huge crowds of people from entering Kabul’s airport. About 114,000 people have been evacuated since August 15, when the Taliban swept back into power.
More than 100 people died in the attack, including 13 US service personnel. Biden travelled on August 29 to an air force base in Delaware to attend the sombre ritual transfer of their remains.
The attack and terror threats have slowed the airlift ahead of Biden’s deadline for evacuations to end by August 31.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on August 31 said some 300 US citizens still in Afghanistan were seeking to leave the country.
“They are not going to be stuck in Afghanistan,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on the Fox network, adding that the US had “a mechanism to get them out”.
The Pentagon on August 28 said retaliation drone strikes
had killed two “high-level” IS jihadists in eastern Afghanistan, but Biden warned of more imminent attacks from the group.
The US embassy in Kabul later released a warning of credible threats at specific areas of the airport, including access gates.
In recent years, the IS’ Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in those countries. They have massacred civilians at mosques, public squares, schools, and even hospitals.
While both IS and the Taliban
are hardline Sunni Islamists, they are bitter foes – with each claiming to be the true flag-bearers of jihad.
The IS attack has forced the US military and the Taliban to cooperate in ensuring security at the airport in a way unthinkable just weeks ago.
On August 28, Taliban fighters escorted a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US forces for evacuation.
After a 20-year war, the foes were within clear sight of each other, separated by just 30m.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said US troops had started withdrawing – without saying how many were left.
Western allies that helped with the airlift have mostly ended their evacuation flights. Some voiced despair at not being able to fly out everyone at risk.
A White House official said 2,900 people were evacuated in a 24-hour period between August 28-29, a drastic reduction from earlier in the week.
And on August 29, approximately 100 countries announced in a joint statement they would continue processing documents for both Afghans and foreign nationals to leave the country even after the US withdrawal deadline of August 31.
The UN said it was bracing for a “worst-case scenario” of up to half a million more refugees from Afghanistan by the end of 2021.