US drone strike kills Islamic State planner of Kabul airport attack

Washington, Aug 27 (EFE).- The United States military Friday launched a drone strike to target the Islamic State planner of the deadly Kabul airport bombing, the Pentagon said.

The terror attack at the airport claimed by the Afghanistan branch of the global terror network killed 170 people, including more than a dozen American soldiers.

“US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counter-terrorism operation today (Firday) against an ISIS-K planner,” Captain Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, said in a statement.

“The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.”

The statement did not identify the Islamic State leader killed in the strike.

Islamic State militants in Afghanistan are generally present in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

The drone strike came a day after President Joe Biden vowed to avenge the killings and go after the Islamic State-Khorasan outfit in his emotional address to the nation.

Biden spoke hours after the deadly terror strike at the Kabul airport amid the US military overseeing the evacuation of Americans and the Afghans who worked for America during its 20-year war in Afghanistan.

“I have also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership, and facilities. We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose, and the moment of our choosing,” Biden remarked.

“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.”

At least 170 people died in the terrorist attack at the Kabul international airport on Thursday evening.

It includes the 13 United States military personnel who died at the Abbey Gate entrance to the airport, a source close to Taliban leaders told EFE Friday.

State Department spokesperson Edward Price Friday said they had evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 105,000 people since Aug.14.

“I can now confirm that the vast majority of our locally employed staff and their immediate family members have been evacuated or are currently on the grounds of the Hamid Karzai International Airport,” Price told reporters.

“We are actively working to evacuate remaining staff, and we have been in direct contact with them.”

The Taliban leadership, which has taken control of Afghanistan after a two-decade war, has set the Aug.31 deadline for foreign countries to evacuate their citizens from the war-ravaged country.

The US embassy in Kabul Saturday issued a fresh advisory for Americans asking them to leave soon if they were near the airport.

“Because of security threats at the Kabul airport, we continue to advise US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates. US citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately,” the embassy said in a statement on its website. EFE

lb-ssk