U.S. strikes Islamic State in retaliation for Kabul bombing
The United States launched a retaliatory air strike Friday against Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan believed responsible for one of the deadliest days for U.S. forces and Afghan civilians in the country’s 20year war, killing a “planner” of Thursday’s airport bombing.
Making good on President Biden’s pledge to hunt those responsible for Thursday’s attack and make them “pay,” the military used a drone to target a militant in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said in a statement.
“Initial indications are that we killed the target,” Urban said. “We know of no civilian casualties.”
The strike followed the attack by an Islamic State affiliate, ISIS-K, that killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghan civilians — and as the Biden administration warned of credible threats of additional terrorist attacks. The U.S. Embassy early Saturday, for the third time in as many days, warned Americans to avoid the Kabul airport gates because of possible suicide or car bombs.
Biden had vowed the day of the suicide bombing that the U.S. would seek retribution.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
The speed of the retaliation will, ironically, cheer the Taliban as it consolidates its control of Afghanistan. The extremist group is a longtime rival of ISIS-K, which is named for Khorasan, an ancient province that once included parts of Afghanistan, and had invaded much of Syria and Iraq before being beaten back by U.S. forces in the last couple of years. ISIS-K’s bombing of the Kabul airport embarrassed the
Taliban, which is trying to show that it can govern and maintain security.
But the airport attack also underscored the fertile environment for terrorism that Afghanistan is likely to become once American and other Western troops complete their withdrawal Tuesday.
As it rushes to carry out the final evacuations of Americans and Afghan allies from Afghanistan, the U.S. military is also attempting to piece together how Thursday’s suicide bomber penetrated security.
The Pentagon said earlier it had determined that there was one suicide bomber and a single blast — not two explosions, as it first reported. The Pentagon blamed its initial erroneous report — that a second bomb had exploded near a hotel outside the airport — on the confusion surrounding the incident.
Because of the crush of people thronging the Kabul airport entry, the death toll was unusually high. Most of the 13 U.S. service members killed were Marines, according to a Marine Corps spokesman. Hospital officials revised the Afghan civilian count to well over 150. The British government announced that three of its citizens — two adults and a child — were killed in the blast.
“Clearly there was a break in the security process” set up to screen people arriving at the Kabul airport, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. Part of that process is in the hands of the Taliban, which controls the airport’s perimeter.
U.S. military commanders have asked Taliban leaders to widen that perimeter for better security, but it was not clear whether they have done so.
Both the White House and the Pentagon said the window on evacuations was closing ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Psaki said to expect the number of evacuees to decline. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said his office would no longer disclose the number of U.S. troops in Kabul out of security concerns.