Afghanistan: the United States claims to have avoided a new IS attack on Kabul airport – franceinfo

The Pentagon claimed that a drone strike on a vehicle in Kabul (Afghanistan) had allowed “remove an imminent threat” ISIS in Khorasan (EI-K) against the airport, Sunday, August 29. On Thursday, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed around 100 people, civilians hoping to be evacuated and American soldiers.

“Strong secondary explosions from the vehicle showed the presence of a significant amount of explosives”, detailed Bill Urban, a spokesman for the Pentagon, specifying that he has no indication of possible civilian casualties at this stage.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed the strike, saying a car bomb was destroyed as he headed for the airport and a likely second strike hit a house nearby.

Joe Biden had let it be known on Saturday evening that a new Islamist attack was “highly probable” within 36 hours. The US embassy in Kabul urged all Americans to leave the airport area “because of a specific and credible threat”.

The United States already carried out a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two operatives “high level” of the Islamic State group and injuring a third. They had presented it as a response to the attack, and had warned that it would not be “the last”.

On Sunday, Joe Biden paid a solemn tribute to the thirteen American soldiers killed in the attack on Thursday, on a US base where their bodies were repatriated.