U.S. MILITARY STRIKE KILLS TWO ISIS-K LEADERS, PENTAGON SAYS: SECOND STRIKE TODAY HITS ATTACKER WITH EXPLOSIVES TARGETING AIRPORT

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

Over 110,000 airlifted out; military also working to remove equipment

East County News Service

Photos via U.S. Dept. of Defense

Update August 30, 2021 with information on civilian casualties from yesterday's drone strike.

AUG. 29, 2021 (Washington D.C.) – Today, U.S. military forces conducted a  strike that eliminated a vehicle filled with explosives that posed a threat to Hamad Karzai International airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Capt. Bill Urban, CENTCOM spokesperson, states,

“We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material,” Voice of America reports.

The New York Times reports that the Aug. 29 drone strike on a vehicle resulted in deaths of 10 civilians, including Afghan children, a U.S. contractor and an aid worker for an American charitable organization.  The Pentagon blamed any civilian deaths on detonation of explosives in the vehicle.

The strike comes one day after The U.S. military conducted an unmanned drone strike in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan Friday which killed two ISIS-K leaders responsible for planning and facilitation activities within the organization and injured other ISIS-K members, the Pentagon's joint staff deputy director for regional operations said. 

Those strikes were in retaliation for ISIS-K  suicide bombers who killed over 170 people including 13 U.S. servicemembers near the airport last Thursday. Islamic State Khorashan has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

During a briefing at the Pentagon, Army Maj. Gen. William D. "Hank" Taylor said that an additional ISIS-K member was also wounded in the strike, and that there were "zero civilian casualties."

"We will continue to have the ability to defend ourselves and to leverage over-the-horizon capability to conduct counter-terrorism operations as needed," Taylor said.

The U.S. military has said since the departure from Afghanistan was announced that it has the ability to conduct "over-the-horizon" operations as part of its ongoing counter-terrorism mission. That means it would continue to be able to conduct an operation such as the drone strike in Nangarhar Province, without having to actually launch it from within Afghanistan.

The security situation in Afghanistan is still dangerous, said Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby.

"The threat stream is still active, still dynamic," Kirby said. "Do we think that that will have some impact on their ability going forward? Absolutely. What and to how much we're just going to have to keep watching the intelligence going forward."

The U.S. military expects to be out of Afghanistan by August 31. Until then, noncombatant evacuation operations, or NEO, continue at Hamid Karzai International Airport to get as many American citizens, Afghan special immigrant visa applicants and other vulnerable Afghans out of the country.

At the same time that evacuation is happening, the U.S. military is also conducting operations to get out military equipment and people not involved in the NEO. Taylor said both of those operations will continue until the last U.S. aircraft and service member leaves the country.

"We have the ability to include evacuees on military airlift out of Afghanistan until the very end," he said. "This is a massive military, diplomatic, security and humanitarian undertaking for the United States and our allies."

In the last 24 hours, he said, 32 U.S. military aircraft left Hamid Karzai International Airport with about 4,000 personnel. An additional 34 coalition aircraft departed the airport with approximately 2,800 personnel.

So far, he said, more than 117,000 have been evacuated from Afghanistan, with approximately 5,400 of those being American citizens.

"This is an incredible number of people who are now safer thanks to the heroism of the young men and women who are putting their lives on the line each day to evacuate American and vulnerable Afghans out of Kabul," Taylor said.

Thursday morning outside the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, 13 of those American service members were killed as the result of an enemy attack while supporting the NEO there. A number of Afghan civilians were also killed, and both American service members and Afghan civilians were injured. Those service members killed came from the Marine Corps, the Army and the Navy.

Biden on Saturday said the airstrike was “not the last” and that the U.S. will “continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.” 

 


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.