US confirms Taliban killed mastermind of 2021 Kabul airport bombing

Washington, Apr 25 (EFE).- The United States confirmed Tuesday that the Taliban recently killed the terrorist behind the 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which killed at least 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US soldiers.

According to US media, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, which cited President Joe Biden’s government officials, US intelligence analysts discovered in early April that the terrorist, a leader of the Afghan branch of the State Islamic (IS) terror group, died in a Taliban operation in Afghanistan.

Pentagon press secretary, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder confirmed in a statement to EFE that the IS plotter responsible for planning the attack had been killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban in early April.

The spokesperson added that the US was not involved in the operation.

According to The New York Times, US officials began informing the families of the soldiers killed in the attack about the death of the IS leader on Monday.

The suicide bombing on the Kabul airport occurred during a series of evacuations by the US military following the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the rapid advance of the Taliban.

Washington retaliated by killing two IS members in the country in a drone strike, although it did not specify if they had been involved in the attack.

Lately, the Taliban have stepped up their offensives against the IS in Afghanistan. However, despite that, the fundamentalists insist that the terror group has been controlled and barely poses a problem.

Since the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan a year-and-a-half ago, dozens of suspected IS members have been killed in operations conducted by the fundamentalists in an attempt to make good on the security guarantees that they boasted of before taking power. EFE

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