The strike, local time on Saturday, came amid what the White House called indications that ISIS planned to strike again as the U.S.-led evacuation of Kabul airport moved into its final days. Biden has set Tuesday as the deadline to complete the outing.
Biden authorized the drone strike and was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not yet been publicly announced. It was not immediately clear if the target IS member was directly involved in Thursday’s attack on the airport.
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The U.S. Central Command said the target person, whose name and nationality was not disclosed, was an IS “planner” and was run over in Nangarhar province, which borders with Pakistan, in eastern Afghanistan, and which was an early IS stronghold.
A U.S. official said Saturday that the target individual appeared to survive a first drone attack aimed at the vehicle he was driving. A second strike killed him, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not yet been made public.
The airstrike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the devastating attack in Kabul that killed 13 Americans and dozens of Afghans just days before they finally withdrew to the United States. of 20 years of war. The U.S. Central Command said it believed its strike did not kill civilians.
The speed with which they retaliated against the U.S. military reflected their close monitoring of the IS and years of experience targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban are in power.
Central Command said the target IS member was believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, said spokesman Navy Captain William Urban.
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It was unclear whether the target person was directly involved in Thursday’s suicide bombing at the gates of Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to enter as part of the ongoing evacuation.
The airstrike came after Biden testified Thursday that the perpetrators of the attack could not hide. “We will pursue you and make you pay,” he said. Pentagon leaders on Friday told reporters they were prepared for any retaliatory action the president ordered.
“We have options right there,” said Major General Hank Taylor, a member of the Pentagon’s joint staff.
The president was warned on Friday that he expected another deadly attack in the final days of a frantic U.S.-led evacuation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s national security team offered a gloomy outlook.
“They warned the president and vice president that another terrorist attack is likely to take place in Kabul, but that they will take maximum protection measures at Kabul airport,” Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at Kabul airport.
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Last Friday, the State Department again urged Americans to stay away from airport gates, including “the door to the new Home Office.”
Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two sites. It was said that there was only one, at the door of the Abbey or nearby, followed by shots. The initial report of a second bombing of the nearby Baron Hotel turned out to be false, said Major General Hank Taylor, a member of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff; attributed the error to initial confusion.
According to a preliminary assessment, U.S. officials believe the suicide vest used in the attack, which killed at least 169 Afghans in addition to the 13 Americans, carried about 25 pounds of explosives and was loaded with shrapnel, he said. Friday an American official. A suicide bomb usually carries between five and ten pounds of explosives, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the bombing.
Biden still faces the long-term problem of containing a number of possible extremist threats based on Afghanistan, which will be tougher with fewer U.S. intelligence resources and no military presence in the nation.
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Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy director of staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doubted Biden’s assurances that the United States will be able to control and attack terrorist threats from beyond the borders of Afghanistan. The Pentagon also insists that this so-called “on the horizon” capability, which includes surveillance and attack of aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.
On Friday, in an appearance with the Oval Office, Biden reiterated his condolences to the victims of the attack. The return home of the remnants of the U.S. military in the coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not only of the devastation at Kabul airport, but also of the costly way to end the war. More than 2,400 members of the U.S. service died in the war and tens of thousands were wounded over the past two decades.
The Marine Corps said 11 of the 13 Americans killed were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and the other was an army soldier. Their names have not been released pending notification from their families, a sometimes lengthy process that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said involves “difficult conversations.”
Still, painful details of the murders were beginning to emerge. A Wyoming sailor was on his first tour of Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri, whose father was devastated by the loss. A third, a 20-year-old Texas man, had joined high school armed services.
Biden ordered half-staffed U.S. flags across the country in honor of the 13th.
They were the first members of the U.S. service killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck a deal with the Taliban calling for the militant group to stop attacks on Americans in change of a U.S. agreement to withdraw all U.S. troops and contractors. May 2021. Biden announced in April that he would have all his forces out by September.
Psaki said the next few days of the evacuation mission of Americans and others, including vulnerable Afghans fleeing the Taliban government, “will be the most dangerous period to date.”
The White House said that as of Saturday morning, approximately 6,800 people had been airlifted from Kabul in the past 24 hours on U.S. and coalition planes. According to the White House, nearly 112,000 people have been transported in the past two weeks. The administration has said it intends to continue and complete the airlift despite terrorist threats.
Kirby told reporters that the U.S. military is monitoring “real-time” specific and credible Islamic State threats.
“We’re definitely ready and would look forward to future attempts,” Kirby said. He declined to describe details of the additional security measures being taken, including those implemented by the Taliban, around the gates and perimeters of the airport. He said there were fewer people at and around the gates on Friday.
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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Darlene Superville and Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the province where the drone strike took place is Nangarhar, not Nangahar
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