KABUL: US officials have claimed that the mastermind behind the August 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport, which killed 13 US troops and around 170 Afghans during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, has been eliminated by the Afghan Taliban in a recent ground assault.
The Islamic State militant who orchestrated the attack was killed during battles between the Taliban and the Islamic State group’s affiliate in southern Afghanistan earlier this month.
Reports made available through western media outlets suggest that the Taliban and the US were initially unaware that the mastermind had been killed during a series of battles in southern Afghanistan earlier this month between the Taliban and the Islamic State group’s affiliate.
The United States confirmed that the leader of the Islamic State has been killed with high confidence, but the U.S. did not play a role in the killing and did not coordinate with the Taliban.
The fallen service members killed in the blast at Abbey Gate were among those screening Afghans trying to evacuate after the Taliban takeover. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, and its Afghanistan-based offshoot, Islamic State-Khorasan, is the Taliban’s top military threat. The group has continued to carry out attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
