WASHINGTON: Another attack on the Kabul airport is likely within the next 24 to 36 hours, President Joe Biden said in a statement, as the U.S. and its allies wind down an evacuation of their citizens and Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
Biden said he directed U.S. commanders to protect American troops on the ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport as the massive airlift ends and U.S. troops withdraw.
According to Biden’s statement, about 6,800 people were flown out Friday, including hundreds of Americans. “And today, we discussed the ongoing preparations to help people continue to leave Afghanistan after our military departs,” he said.
Separately, the U.S. airstrike Friday night against an Islamic State Afghan affiliate — retaliation for a suicide bombing on the perimeter of Kabul’s airport Thursday, in which at least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed — resulted in the deaths of two important members of the group, the U.S. Defense Department said Saturday. The affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, had claimed responsibility for the airport attack.
“Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, and one was wounded, and we know of zero civilian casualties,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a media briefing, using an alternative designation for the group.
“This strike was not the last,” Biden said. “We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.”
Kirby would not discuss to what extent ISIS capabilities might have suffered as a result of the U.S. attack, but he said, “They lost a planner, and they lost a facilitator, and they’ve got one wounded. And the fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth — that’s a good thing.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid reportedly denounced the U.S. airstrike, saying it was a “clear attack on Afghan territory,” according to Reuters. He also reportedly said the Taliban expected to take full control of the airport when the U.S. military pullout from the country was complete.
The U.S. drone strike targeted a person whom the military believed had been responsible for planning deadly attacks on the U.S. in Kabul.
(VOA)
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