US strikes ‘suicide bombers’, says more attacks imminent

A US drone strike Sunday blew up a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate before they could target the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul’s international airport as Taliban guards stood outside, American officials said

 A US drone strike Sunday blew up a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate before they could target the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul’s international airport as Taliban guards stood outside, American officials said.

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The strike came just two days before the US is set to conclude a massive airlift of tens of thousands of Afghan and foreign civilians and withdraw the last of its troops, ending America’s longest war, with the Taliban back in power.

At around the same time as the drone strike, Afghan police said a rocket hit a neighbourhood near the airport, killing a child. Rashid, the Kabul police chief, who goes by one name, confirmed the rocket attack, and video obtained by The Associated Press showed smoke rising from a building around a kilometre from the airport.

The Taliban described the drone strike and the rocket attack as separate incidents, but residents of the Afghan capital heard only one large blast.

One US official said the strike was carried out by an unmanned aircraft piloted from outside Afghanistan, and that secondary explosions following the strike showed the target had been carrying a substantial amount of explosives. Television footage showed black smoke rising into the sky.

The drone strike took place while remaining civilians waited at the airport to be flown out before the last troops leave, a Western security official said. A US official said on Saturday that fewer than 4,000 troops remained.

After an Islamic State affiliate’s suicide attack that killed over 180 people on Thursday, US President Joe Biden had vowed to keep up the airstrikes, saying earlier on Saturday that another attack was “highly likely”. The State Department called the threat “specific” and “credible”. The Taliban too increased its security around the airfield as several Western nations wrapped up evacuations.

Two American military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, called the airstrike successful and said the vehicle carried multiple bombers.

US Navy Capt Bill Urban, a spokesperson for the American military’s Central Command, called the drone strike an action taken in “self-defence”. He said authorities continued “assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time.”

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

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid earlier said in a message to journalists that the US strike targeted a suicide bomber as he drove a vehicle loaded with explosives. Mujahid offered few other details.

The strike was the second by America since the airport suicide bombing. On Saturday, a strike in Nangarhar province killed an Islamic State member believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul.

The Sunni extremists of IS, with links to the group’s more well-known affiliate in Syria and Iraq, have carried out a series of brutal attacks, mainly targeting Afghanistan’s Shia Muslim minority, including a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital in Kabul in which they killed women and infants.

The Taliban have fought against Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have wrested back control nearly 20 years after they were ousted in a US-led invasion. The Americans went in following the 9/11 attacks, which al-Qaeda orchestrated while being sheltered by the group.

US military cargo planes continued their runs into the airport Sunday, ahead of a Tuesday deadline earlier set by President Joe Biden to withdraw all troops. However, Afghans remaining behind in the country worry about the Taliban reverting to their earlier oppressive rule — something fuelled by the recent shooting death of a folk singer in the country by the militants.

A Taliban official said the Islamist group had engineers and technicians ready to take charge of the airport after US troops depart.

ADMINISTRATION CRISIS

The US-backed Afghan government’s collapse as Taliban forces advanced towards Kabul earlier this month leaves an administrative vacuum that has led to fears of an economic crisis and widespread hunger.

Prices for commodities like flour, oil and rice are rapidly rising and the currency is plunging, with money changers across the border in Pakistan already refusing to accept the afghani.

On Saturday, officials ordered banks to reopen and imposed a limit on withdrawals of $200 or 20,000 afghani. Long queues forming outside bank branches of people trying to get money out.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said the difficulties will subside quickly once the new administration is up and running. But with its economy shattered by decades of war, Afghanistan is now facing the end of billions of dollars in foreign aid poured in by Western donors.

Mujahid said the Taliban would announce a full cabinet in the coming days. It had appointed governors and police chiefs in all but one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, he said.

The Taliban also appealed to the United States and other Western nations to maintain diplomatic relations after withdrawing. Britain said that should happen only if the Taliban allow safe passage for those who want to leave and respect human rights.