US carries out Afghanistan drone strike as Kabul evacuation effort enters final stretch
The US military carried out a drone strike against what it said was an ISIS-K planner in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, amid warnings of possible further terror attacks targeting the last-ditch US evacuation effort from Kabul.
The desperate mission to airlift US citizens and Afghans who assisted US forces from the country by the end of the month is now in its final phase.
The drone strike in Nangarhar came a day after US President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate for a terrorist attack Thursday that killed 13 US service members and at least 170 others outside Kabul's international airport.
ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, has claimed that an ISIS militant carried out Thursday's suicide attack at an airport gate, but provided no evidence to support the claim. US officials have said the group was likely behind the bombing.
Biden approved the strike on the ISIS-K planner, according to an official familiar with the matter.
"U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner. The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan," spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said Friday. "Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties."
The identity of the person targeted in the US airstrike has not yet been confirmed.
A defense official told CNN that the target of the drone strike who was killed was believed to be "associated with potential future attacks at the airport." The US had located him and "we had sufficient eyes on and sufficient knowledge" to strike, the official said. "He was a known entity."
The official said the US was not calling the person a "senior" ISIS-K operative.
The US Embassy in Kabul on Friday again warned US citizens at a number of gates at Hamid Karzai International Airport to "leave immediately," citing security threats.
The alert advised US citizens "to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates."
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