Photo: NOORULLAH SHIRZADA / AFP / Getty Images
The United States Army announced its first retaliatory attack in Afghanistan, since an attack at the Kabul airport on Thursday killed around 170 people, in addition to causing the death of 13 US military
US authorities again warned Americans in Afghanistan to leave Kabul airport entrances , due to security threats, according to The New York Times.
The United States conducted a counterterrorism operation over the horizon today against an ISIS-K planner, ”Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Central Command, said in a statement, referring to the affiliated terrorist organization. a of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Afghanistan, also known as Islamic State Khorasan, which claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack.
“The unmanned aerial attack occurred in Nangahar province in Afghanistan” said Captain Urban. “The first signs are that we killed the target. We do not know that there are civilian victims. ”
Acting Quickly on President Joe Biden’s promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, the US military said that used a drone strike to kill a member of the Afghan group the Islamic State group in Afghanistan on Saturday .
The attack against an ISIS-K member in the province of Nangarhar came amid what the White House called indications that the Islamic State was planning to strike again. as the US-led Kabul airport evacuation moves into its final days, according to The Associated Press.
Biden authorized the drone strike and was ordered by Secretary of Defense Ll oyd Austin, said a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to AP, to provide details that have not yet been publicly announced.
Biden has set Tuesday as the deadline to complete the evacuation and departure of the United States Army from Afghanistan.
The attack on the airport of Kabul was one of the deadliest in the nearly two decades since the US-led invasion.
US officials believe “another terrorist attack in Kabul is likely,” the White House press secretary said Friday afternoon. , Jen Psaki. “The threat continues and is active. Our troops are still in danger. ”
The US airstrike on an“ an ISIS-K planner ”followed the sharp comments of President Biden from the White House on Thursday, when pledged to “hunt down” the terrorists who took credit for the attack.
“For those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes harm to the United States, know this: we will not forgive, ” said Biden, using language that had grim echoes of warnings from President George W. . Bush after the terrorist attacks of 11 from 2001.
A warning from the US embassy in Afghanistan said that US citizens at the Kabul airport “who are at the gate of the Abadí a, the east door, the north door or the door of the New Ministry of the Interior must now go immediately. ”