A U.S. airstrike killed a member of the Islamic State”s affiliate in Afghanistan early on Saturday in retaliation for a suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 13 People and scores of Afghans.
A U.S. defence official advised AP that the drone strike got here as an extra assault was being deliberate by the militant group in opposition to the airport, the place a mass evacuation of refugees is at present underway.
President Joe Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday for a whole withdrawal from Afghanistan, 20 years after the American-led invasion of the nation following the September 11 assaults in 2001.
U.S. Central Command mentioned the drone strike was carried out in Nangahar province in opposition to an IS member believed to be concerned in planning assaults in Kabul.
It isn’t clear if the person was concerned instantly within the suicide bombing outdoors the gates of Kabul airport on Thursday, as crowds of Afghans desperately tried to hitch the continuing evacuation.
Biden declared Thursday that perpetrators of the assault wouldn’t have the ability to conceal.
“We’ll hunt you down and make you pay,” he mentioned.
However officers have additionally warned that additional assaults are doubtless because the U.S. withdrawal progresses.
“[The Pentagon] suggested the president and vice chairman that one other terror assault in Kabul is probably going, however that they’re taking most power safety measures on the Kabul airport,” White Home Press Secretary Jen Psaki mentioned.
‘Unacceptable’
On Friday, the self-proclaimed performing president of Afghanistan advised Euronews that Taliban rule gained’t final lengthy as a result of their strategies are “unacceptable to the individuals”.
Amrullah Saleh was vice chairman earlier than the Taliban takeover earlier this month, which prompted President Ashraf Ghani to flee.
Saleh, talking from the Panjshir Valley, an space of the nation not at present below Taliban management, advised Euronews: “The regulation of the Taliban is Islamic Emirate, unacceptable to the individuals of Afghanistan and the election of a frontrunner by a bunch is unacceptable. It’s unimaginable for Taliban rule to final lengthy in Afghanistan.”
Italy
In the meantime, Italy’s closing evacuation flight of refugees from Afghanistan has landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport.
The Italian Air Drive C-130J with 58 Afghan residents aboard arrived Saturday morning, some 17 hours after it departed from the Kabul airport and after a deliberate stopover.
Additionally aboard have been Italy’s consul and a NATO diplomat who had coordinated evacuations on the Kabul airport.
Italian International Minister Luigi Di Maio mentioned Italy was ready to work with the United Nations and with international locations bordering Afghanistan on what he described because the “harder part.”
