'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As the foreign forces are being withdrawn from Kabul, the city has emerged as the stage of military blitzkrieg.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)
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