Afghanistan: US Airstrike Kills Islamic State Planner in Afghanistan Following Deadly Kabul Attack

U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate.

The US military announced Saturday that it deployed a drone attack to kill a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan offshoot, following President Joe Biden's commitment to punish for the fatal suicide bombing at Kabul airport.

As the US-led evacuation from Kabul airport entered its last days, the strike came amid what the White House described as "indications" that IS planned to strike again. Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday to complete the exit.

According to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet publicly announced, Biden authorized the drone strike, which was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The airstrike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after a horrific Kabul attack that killed 13 Americans and scores of Afghans with only days remaining in the United States' ultimate withdrawal from Afghanistan after a 20-year conflict. The US Central Command released little information, saying only that it thought no civilians were killed in the operation.

The speed with which the U.S. military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

Central Command said the drone strike was conducted in Nangahar province against an IS member believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said.

It wasn’t clear if the targeted individual was involved directly in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation.

The airstrike came after Biden declared Thursday that perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. “We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

“We have options there right now,” said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

The president was warned Friday to expect another lethal attack in the closing days of a frantic U.S.-led evacuation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s national security team offered a grim outlook.

“They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport,” Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at Kabul airport.

Late Friday, the State Department again urged Americans to stay away from airport gates, including “the New Ministry of Interior gate.”

Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations. It said there was just one — at or near the Abbey Gate — followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff; he attributed the mistake to initial confusion.

Based on a preliminary assessment, U.S. officials believe the suicide vest used in the attack, which killed at least 169 Afghans in addition to the 13 Americans, carried about 25 pounds of explosives and was loaded with shrapnel, a U.S. official said Friday. A suicide bomb typically carries five to 10 pounds of explosives, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the bombing.

Biden still faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation.

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doubted Biden’s assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistan’s borders. The Pentagon also insists this so-called “over the horizon” capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.

In an Oval Office appearance Friday, Biden again expressed his condolences to victims of the attack. The return home of U.S. military members’ remains in coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not just of the devastation at the Kabul airport but also of the costly way the war is ending. More than 2,400 U.S. service members died in the war and tens of thousands were injured over the past two decades.

The Marine Corps said 11 of the 13 Americans killed were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and one an Army soldier. Their names have not been released pending notification of their families, a sometimes-lengthy process that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said involves “difficult conversations.”

Still, sorrowful details of those killed were starting to emerge. One Marine from Wyoming was on his first tour in Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri whose father was devastated by the loss. A third, a 20-year-old from Texas, had joined the armed services out of high school.

Biden ordered U.S. flags to half-staff across the country in honor of the 13.

They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for the militant group to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all American troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that he would have all forces out by September.

The mission to evacuate Americans and others, particularly vulnerable Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, will “be the most perilous period to date,” according to Psaki.

According to the White House, about 12,500 people had been airlifted from Kabul in the previous 24 hours by US and coalition planes, with another 4,200 being evacuated in the next 12 hours. About 300 Americans have left, according to Psaki, and the State Department is working with another 500 people who wish to escape. Despite the terror threats, the administration has stated that it plans to continue and complete the airlift.

The US military is monitoring realistic, specific Islamic State threats "in real time," Kirby told reporters.

“We are certainly prepared and anticipate other attempts,” Kirby added. He refused to go into detail about any additional security measures in place around the airport gates and surrounds, including those established by the Taliban. On Friday, he claimed, there were fewer people at the gates and around them.