Taliban government forces have killed the Islamic State mastermind of a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport during the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, the White House said on Tuesday.
The bomber detonated a device among a crowd at the airport’s perimeter as they tried to flee Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021.
The blast killed about 170 Afghans and 13 US troops who were securing the airport for the exit.
Photo: EPA-EFE
It was one of the deadliest bombings in Afghanistan and prompted a wave of criticism of US President Joe Biden for his decision to pull US forces out of the country after nearly 20 years.
The leader of the Islamic State cell that planned the attack has since been killed by Taliban authorities, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
“He was a key ISIS-K official directly involved in plotting operations like Abbey Gate and now is no longer able to plot or conduct attacks,” Kirby said, referring to the spot outside the airport where the attack took place.
ISIS-K refers to Islamic State Khorasan, the branch of the group operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“He was killed in a Taliban operation,” Kirby said, without giving any details.
The pullout, which ended on Aug. 30, 2021, saw Taliban fighters sweep aside Western-trained Afghan forces in just weeks, forcing the last US troops to mount the desperate evacuation from the airport.
An unprecedented military airlift operation got more than 120,000 people out of the country in a matter of days.
Biden has defended his decision to leave Afghanistan, which critics have said helped cause the catastrophic collapse of the Afghan forces and paved the way for the Taliban to return to power two decades after its first government was toppled.
A recent Washington Post report citing leaked Pentagon documents said the US believes that since the withdrawal, Afghanistan is becoming a “staging ground” for the Islamic State group.
“We have made clear to the Taliban that it is their responsibility to ensure that they give no safe haven to terrorists, whether al-Qaeda or ISIS-K,” Kirby said. “We have made good on the president’s pledge to establish an over-the-horizon capacity to monitor potential terrorist threats, not only from Afghanistan, but elsewhere around the world where that threat has metastasized, as we have done in Somalia and Syria.”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
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