The U.S. drone strike against the Islamic State in Afghanistan killed two of the terrorist group’s agents, but the Pentagon believes another terrorist attack in Kabul is imminent.
General William Taylor said a “planner” and a “facilitator” had died after Friday’s operation.
Officials admitted that ISIS-K remains a deadly threat and President Biden warned on Saturday afternoon that a new attack “is very likely in the next 24-36 hours”.
Officials declined to identify the individuals killed by name or say they had a specific role in the suicide attack at Kabul airport that killed 13 members of the U.S. service and at least 169 Afghans. The lack of detail led some experts to conclude that the two were not high-value targets.
“I’m not going to talk about intelligence issues one way or another,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby characterized the two targets as confirmed operatives of the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the local affiliate of the jihadist group that was credited with the bloodshed on Thursday.
“They were ISIS-K planners and facilitators, and that’s reason enough,” Kirby said. “The fact that two of these individuals stop walking on the surface of the earth is a good thing.”
Biden said it will not be the last US strike against terrorists.
“I said we would go to the group responsible for the attack on our innocent troops and civilians in Kabul, and we have it,” Biden said in a statement released Saturday afternoon. “This strike was not the last. We will continue to prosecute anyone involved in that heinous attack and make them pay. “
Removing these two terrorists did not change the dynamics of the evacuation operation.
” We’re not thinking for a minute that what happened yesterday made it clear to us, ‘Kirby said. “It simply came to our notice then. But do we believe we achieve valid, bad goals that can do bad things and can plan bad missions? Absolutely. And do we think this will have a certain impact on their capacity in the future? Absolutely. “
The Taliban criticized the drone strike and said they should have been informed before it happened and that women and children were among the victims. The U.S. military says there were no civilian casualties.
The Taliban also claimed to have arrested some suspects involved in the airport attack.
Kirby said the bodies of soldiers killed in the airport attack were returning to the United States. I wouldn’t say if Biden would meet the transport when he arrives.
While the United States continues to prosecute people desperately trying to evict Afghanistan before Tuesday’s deadline, some troops have begun leaving Kabul, Kirby said.
“The retrograde has begun,” he said of the 5,000 troops deployed there to carry out the evacuation.
General Taylor said 32 U.S. military flights and 34 Allied flights took 6,800 people out of Kabul from Friday to Saturday, bringing the total number of evacuees to more than 117,000. Approximately 5,400 of these were American citizens.
“These are an incredible number of people who are now safer, thanks to the heroism of the young men and women who get their lives ready every day to evacuate vulnerable Americans and Afghans from Kabul,” he said. dir Taylor.
Flights are beginning to take Afghan evacuees to U.S. soil, including one that will fly Saturday from Italy to Philadelphia. U.S. military bases in several states are preparing space for about 21,000 evacuees.
The general said the U.S. military still controls the airport and denied claims by the Taliban that it held some positions at the facility to prepare for control when the Americans left.
But State Department officials warned Americans to avoid the airport because of security threats and told those waiting desperately at the gates to leave.
The Taliban deployed additional forces on Saturday to try to prevent the formation of large crowds near the airport and the creation of new targets for terrorist attacks. The areas where a large crowd had gathered in recent days in hopes of escaping the country after the Taliban’s acquisition were largely empty.
New checkpoints also emerged on the roads leading to the airport, some manned by U.S.-supplied Humvees uniformed Taliban fighters and night-vision goggles captured by Afghan security forces. According to reports, the Taliban let only people with American passports pass through, sealing possible escape routes for Afghans.
Access to the airport is not the only one blocked. Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of a bank in Kabul amid a cash shortage in the country that has seen ATM withdrawals limited to $ 200 a day.
Criticism of the chaotic situation continued.
“I lost my son,” said Jim McCollum, father of Marine Rylee McCollum, 20, who was killed Thursday. “We gave them everything they needed and we are stuck at the airport. I’m afraid to see what happens next and what comes to mind. ”
Although officials pledged that the U.S. will continue the evacuation until Tuesday’s deadline, most NATO allies flew their troops out of Kabul on Saturday, ending two decades of involvement. in the war-torn country.
The UK was conducting its last evacuation flights, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to “change heaven and earth” to get more people at risk of Taliban retaliation in Britain by other means.
Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, said in a video from Kabul airport that “it was time to close this phase of the operation.”