US carries out Kabul airstrike targeting suspected ISIS-K bomber posing
The US military acknowledged later Sunday that there are reports of civilian casualties following the strike. “We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further,” Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for US Central Command, said in a statement.
“We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life,” he added.
The statement followed CNN’s reporting that nine members of one family, including six children, were killed in the drone strike, according to a brother of one of those killed, who spoke to a local journalist working with CNN. US Central Command said earlier they were assessing the possibility of civilian casualties.
US forces have been racing to complete their evacuation operation before Tuesday’s deadline and under the threat of a new terror attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
Sunday’s drone strike on a vehicle is the second by US forces targeting the ISIS-K terror group in the space of three days. A US official confirmed the location of the strike as being in Kabul’s Khaje Bughra neighborhood.
“U.S. military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International Airport,” said US CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Urban.
“We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”
The Taliban, which is now in control of Afghanistan, condemned the strike later Sunday, saying the US had violated the country’s sovereignty.
Bilal Kareemi, a Taliban spokesperson, told CNN that it was “not right to conduct operations on others’ soil” and that the US should have informed the Taliban. “Whenever the US conducts such operations, we condemn them,” he said.
The vehicle that was targeted by the US in Sunday’s airstrike on Kabul was next to a building and contained one suicide bomber, a US official told CNN.
It remains unclear if the vehicle was intended to be a car bomb, or if the suicide bomber was using it for transport. “It was loaded up and ready to go,” the official tells CNN.
A Pentagon official told CNN that according to initial reports, the target was a vehicle believed to be containing multiple suicide bombers. The threat could also have been a car bomb or someone with a suicide vest, he said, citing initial reports.
Urban said earlier Sunday the US military was “assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time” and would remain vigilant against potential future threats.
Neighbors and witnesses at the scene of the drone strike in Kabul told CNN that several people were killed, including children.
“All the neighbors tried to help and brought water to put out the fire and I saw that there were 5 or 6 people dead,” a neighbor told…
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