Two Islamic State targets were killed and another wounded in a U.S. airstrike ordered in response to the deadly suicide bombing outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Saturday.
The counterterrorism strike was carried out against ISIS-K, which claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack that left 13 U.S. service members dead, in Afghanistan’s Nangahar Province, with Major Gen. Hank Taylor, the deputy director of the Joint Staff For Regional Operations, confirming during a Saturday briefing that two “high-profile ISIS targets were killed and one was wounded.”
Recommended Stories
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby added it was “a good thing for the people of Afghanistan and it’s a good thing for our troops” that these men were killed. Kirby said officials would not name the terrorists who were killed in the strike, and the Pentagon declined to say whether these people, whom they characterize as “planners and facilitators,” were directly involved in Thursday’s blast.
NO GUARANTEES FOR AMERICANS AND ALLIES LEFT BEHIND IN AFGHANISTAN AFTER AUGUST DEADLINE
Officials first announced they believed the strike to have been successful Friday night.
“Initial indications are that we killed the target,” Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Friday. “We know of no civilian casualties.”
The Islamic State took responsibility for the Thursday explosion, which killed 13 U.S. service members and injured another 18. Some 170 people total were killed in the blast.
President Joe Biden, who faces mounting criticism and calls from Republican lawmakers to resign over the situation in Afghanistan, pledged to “hunt down” the perpetrators of the attack during a Thursday address to the nation.
“We’re outraged, as well as heartbroken,” he said during the speech. “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
Kirby said Saturday that the terror threat in Afghanistan remains and that despite the airstrike’s success, officials aren’t under the assumption that it “gets us into the clear.”
“The threat stream is still active, still dynamic, [and] we’re still laser-focused on that and force protection,” Kirby said, before adding, “We aren’t thinking for a minute that what happened yesterday gets us into clear … but do we believe that we hit valid targets, bad guys who can do bad things and can plan bad missions.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The United States is continuing to evacuate Americans and eligible Afghans ahead of the Biden administration’s Tuesday withdrawal deadline.
Approximately 6,800 people were evacuated from Kabul between 3 a.m. EDT on Friday and the same time the next day, according to the Pentagon. As of Saturday, at least 5,400 U.S. citizens have been evacuated from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, while approximately 350 are trying to leave the country, a State Department spokesperson said. The U.S. has evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of some 111,900 people since Aug. 14.
