'Multiple suicide bombers were heading to airport': US on Kabul airstrike
The United States has carried out a military strike in Kabul, two US officials told Reuters after a massive blast was reported from a residential area in the vicinity of the Kabul airport on Sunday. Reports said a child was killed in the rocket attack. The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strike targeted suspected ISIS-K militants. These are just initial information and could change as more information pour in, the official told Reuters.
"The incident happened as police said a rocket struck a neighbourhood just northwest of Kabul's international airport Sunday as the US evacuation there winds down following the Taliban's lightning takeover of the country, killing a child. The two strikes initially appeared to be separate incidents, though information on both remained scarce," the Associated Press reported.
Regarding Saturday's strike, while many reports claimed that a child was killed in the strike, US military officials confirmed that there was no civilian death. "Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material," a US military official said.
A Taliban spokesperson said the US military airstrike targetted a suicide bomber who was in a vehicle, attempting to target the Kabul international airport amid the American evacuation.
The airstrike comes a day after the Pentagon claimed to have killed two ISIS men in an airstrike in Jalajabad, in a retaliatory attack of the ISIS-K's suicide bomb attack near Kabul airport n August 26 that killed over 180 people.
As the foreign forces are being withdrawn from Kabul, the city has emerged as the stage of military blitzkrieg. While the Pentagon hinted that it might carry out a similar strike in the future, without revealing any details, the US government sounded terror alert for the next 24-36 hours.
The Taliban had condemned the United States' Jalalabad strike and said the US should have informed the Taliban before the attack as it was a strike on the soil of Afghanistan. The Pentagon on Saturday said it continues to have the capability to defend itself in Afghanistan as long as the process of the withdrawal of the troops continues.
(With agency inputs)
-
UK companies to trial four-day workweek
Louis Bloomsfield and colleagues at the Pressure Drop brewery are taking part in a six-month trial of a four-day working week, with 3,000 others from 60 UK companies. Pressure Drop, based in Tottenham Hale, is hoping the experiment will not only improve their employees' productivity but also their well-being. At the same time, it will reduce their carbon footprint. Pressure Drop brewery's co-founder Sam Smith said the new way of working would be a learning process.
-
Nepal plane carrying 22 passengers, including 4 Indians, loses contact: Report
A Tara Air's 9 NAET twin-engine aircraft carrying 19 passengers, flying from Pokhara to Jomsom in Nepal, has lost contact on Sunday morning, news agency ANI reported citing airport authorities. The plane lost contact at 9:55am, it added. The missing aircraft was carrying four Indians and three Japanese nationals. The remaining were Nepali citizens and the aircraft had 22 passengers, including the crew, ANI added.
-
‘That's on your hands': US senator Cruz confronted at dinner over Texas shooting
Days after 21 people were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Texas, US senator Ted Cruz was confronted over the incident after he addressed an event of the National Rifles Association. A video put up by a group of activists - the Invisible Houston - shows the senator being questioned over the incident.
-
Deadly nose-bleed fever shocks Iraq as cases surge
Spraying a cow with pesticides, health workers target blood-sucking ticks at the heart of Iraq's worst detected outbreak of a fever that causes people to bleed to death. This year Iraq has recorded 19 deaths among 111 CCHF cases in humans, according to the Word Health Organization. The virus has no vaccine and onset can be swift, causing severe bleeding both internally and externally and especially from the nose.
-
US 'concerned' after UN human rights chief visits China
The United States expressed concern on Saturday over China's "efforts to restrict and manipulate" the UN human rights chief's visit to the Xinjiang region where Beijing is accused of detaining over a million people in indoctrination camps. Michelle Bachelet's long-planned trip this week took her to the far-western Xinjiang region, where the United States has labeled China's detention of a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities a "genocide."