A Taliban spokesman yesterday said a US drone strike targeting a suspected suicide bomber in Kabul on Sunday resulted in civilian casualties, and condemned the US for failing to inform the Islamist group before ordering the strike.

Zabihullah Mujahid told China’s state television CGTN that many people were killed in the drone attack, describing the US action on foreign soil as unlawful.

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel.

A relative of the dead, however, told a local journalist working with BBC that 10 members of one family — including six children — were killed in the drone strike.

“If there was any potential threat in Afghanistan, it should have been reported to us, not an arbitrary attack that has resulted in civilian casualties,” Mujahid said in a written response to CGTN.

The spokesman also said the hardline Islamist group will crack down on Islamic State attacks and expect them to end once foreign forces leave the country.

“We hope that those Afghans who are influenced by IS… will give up their operations on seeing the formation of an Islamic government in the absence of foreigners,” he told AFP in a weekend interview.

“If they create a situation for war and continue with their operations, the Islamic government… we will deal with them,” he added.

Pentagon officials said the suicide car bomber had been preparing to attack the airport in Kabul, where US troops were in the final stages of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, on behalf of ISIS-K, a local affiliate of Islamic State that is an enemy of both the West and the Taliban.

US Central Command said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties from Sunday’s drone 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 said.

Meanwhile, US anti-missile defences intercepted as many as five rockets that were fired at Kabul’s airport early yesterday.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Nasher News said on its Telegram channel.

Afghan media said the rocket attack was launched from the back of a vehicle. The Pajhwok news agency said several rockets struck different parts of the Afghan capital. Initial reports did not indicate any US casualties.

Having evacuated about 114,400 people, including foreign nationals and Afghans deemed “at risk”, in an effort that began a day before Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, US and allied forces are set to complete their own withdrawal by today’s deadline agreed with the Islamist militants.

The number of US troops at the airport had fallen below 4,000 over the weekend, as departures became more urgent after an Islamic State suicide bomb attack outside the gates on Thursday killed scores of Afghans and 13 US troops.

‘WHATEVER IS NECESSARY’

In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden reconfirmed his order for commanders to do “whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground” after he was briefed on yesterday’s rocket attack. Biden was informed that airport operations continued uninterrupted, it added.

For all the efforts made by Western powers to evacuate as many people as possible, tens of thousands of desperate Afghans faced being left behind.

Two US officials told Reuters evacuations continued yesterday, prioritising people deemed at extreme risk. Other countries have also put in last-minute requests to bring out people in that category, the officials said.

The “core” diplomatic staff had withdrawn by yesterday morning. They did not say whether this included top envoy Ross Wilson, expected to be among the last to leave before the final troops themselves.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said yesterday threat to Kabul airport remains “real” and “specific”.

The Taliban, who carried out public executions and banned girls and women from school or work when last in power 20 years ago, have said they will safeguard rights and not pursue vendettas. They say once the Americans leave, the country will at last be at peace for the first time in more than 40 years.

But countless Afghans, especially in the cities, fear for their futures. And the United Nations said the entire country now faces a dire humanitarian crisis, cut off from foreign aid amid a drought, mass displacement and Covid-19.

“The evacuation effort has undoubtedly saved tens of thousands of lives, and these efforts are praiseworthy,” said UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi.



US drone attack ‘arbitrary’
Source: Trend Viral Philippines