US launches drone strikes at ISIS militants targeting Kabul airport

WASHINGTON: US drone strike killed a suicide car bomber who Pentagon officials said was preparing to strike Kabul airport on Sunday, as American forces worked to complete a withdrawal that will end two decades of military involvement in Afghanistan.

The strike was the second by the US military since an Islamic State suicide bomb outside the airport on Thursday killed 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians desperate to flee the country’s new Taliban rulers.

The airport has been the scene of a massive airlift by US and allied forces evacuating their citizens and at-risk Afghans that is due to wind up ahead of a Tuesday deadline set by President Joe Biden.

Officials said the strike targeted suspected militants from ISIS-K, a local affiliate of Islamic State that is an enemy of both the West and the Taliban. The official said it was carried out by an unmanned aircraft and that secondary explosions showed the target had been carrying a substantial amount of explosives. 

According to a news agency, US officials had said they were particularly concerned about ISIS-K attacking the airport as American troops depart, in particular the threat from rockets and vehicle-borne explosives. Biden said on Saturday that his military chiefs had told him another militant attack was highly likely.

The drone strike took place while remaining civilians waited at Hamid Karzai International Airport to be flown out before the last troops leave. The Taliban said they had started their own investigations into the US strike and whether the target was really a suicide bomber driving a vehicle loaded with explosives.

At a ceremony on Sunday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honor members of the US military killed in Thursday’s attack, Biden shut his eyes and tilted his head back as the flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains emerged from a military plane. None of the fallen service members was over the age of 31, and five were just 20, as old as the war in Afghanistan itself.

Biden has vowed to go after the perpetrators and the United States said on Saturday it had killed two ISIS-K militants in a drone strike the day before. The Taliban condemned that strike, which took place in eastern Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan, saying they should have been told about it in advance.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in an interview that Washington expected the Taliban to continue to allow safe passage for Americans and others to leave the country after the US military withdrawal is completed.

The Afghan government’s collapse leaves an administrative vacuum that has led to fears of an economic crisis and widespread hunger. Prices for commodities including flour, oil and rice are rapidly rising and the currency is plunging.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said the group will announce a full Cabinet in the coming days, and that the difficulties will subside quickly once the new administration is up and running.

Biden has faced criticism at home and abroad for the chaos surrounding the final weeks of US military presence in Afghanistan. He has defended his decisions, saying the United States long ago achieved its rationale for invading in 2001.