Islamic State ‘Planner’ Killed In Retaliation For Suicide Kabul Bombing

People feared there will be a ‘hostage crisis’ if those trapped in the country aren’t rescued.  According to report, the US has not named the ‘planner’ it killed.  It is not clear if the fighter

was involved in the devastating blast at the airport, which the Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch, ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for.

The US military says it has killed an Islamic State ‘planner’ in retaliation for Thursday’s deadly suicide bombing in Kabul airport.

Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for US Central Command, said the military had conducted a drone strike against an IS member in Afghanistan’s Nangahar Province, which borders Pakistan.

‘U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,’ he said.

‘Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.’

The blast killed as many as 170 Afghans and 13 American service members.

Two defence officials told NBC News that the target was an ISIS-K member thought to be planning future attacks.

The fighter had been riding in a vehicle with an associate at the time of the strike, which was carried out by an MQ-9 Reaper drone using munitions chosen for precision and in order to minimise civilian casualties, they said.

There are reports that both the planner and his associate were been killed, with the strike approved by Joe Biden.

The move goes someway to fulfil a promise made by the US President to retaliate against those who carried out the attack.

In remarks made from the White House on Thursday Biden said: ‘We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.’

 A senior Taliban commander said some ISIS-K members had been arrested in connection with the Kabul attack.

‘They are being interrogated by our intelligence team,’ the commander said. 

The deaths of the US servicemen were the first US casualties in Afghanistan since February 2020, despite Mr Biden insisting that the rapid withdrawal of troops was intended to stop American lives being lost.

The US and other foreign troops have until Tuesday to get out of Afghanistan, although most countries have finished their efforts to evacuate citizens and Afghans.

Boris Johnson has pledged to ‘shift heaven and earth’ to get more people out of Afghanistan after the 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of all troops.

The UK has evacuated over 14,500 individuals so far, but rescue flights from Kabul airport will come to an end today, with over 1,000 eligible people likely to be let behind.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) said the UK’s ability to process any more evacuations from Afghanistan is now ‘extremely reduced’ and focus is turning to getting diplomats and service personnel out of Afghanistan.

The withdrawal of British troops comes as a top general warns ISIS-K is a threat to the UK.

Referring to the airport terror attack, former military commander General Sir Richard Barrons told Times Radio: ‘What it does do is illustrate that Isis-K is a risk to the United Kingdom, here at home, and to our interests abroad.

‘We’re going to find common cause with the US, and indeed I think the Taliban, in bearing down on this terrible organisation for as long as it takes to neuter them.’

He said it was likely Britain will have to co-operate with the Taliban to prevent any domestic terrorism and also to get any other Britons who have been left behind in Afghanistan back home.