US strikes ISIS target in Kabul, claims to prevent another suicide attack on airport

Earlier Sunday, the U.S. embassy in Kabul issued a security alert over “a specific, credible threat,” urging all U.S. citizens to leave the area of the Kabul airport “immediately.”

By Tobias Siegal, World Israel News

A large explosion shook the city of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday afternoon, a couple of days after two suicide bombers killed over 170 people at the capital’s airport, including 13 U.S. military personnel.

Initial reports indicate that the explosion was caused by a rocket that hit a house in the Khuwja Bughra residential area. In photos shared online, a long trail of smoke can be seen traveling from a dense area in the city, adjacent to the airport.

Local media in Afghanistan initially reported that two individuals were killed in the blast and three others were injured. A report by the CNN later claimed that as many as nine family members, including six children, died in the blast.

U.S. officials later confirmed that the explosion was indeed the result of a U.S. unmanned airstrike that prevented an “imminent ISIS-K threat” to the Kabul airport.

The airstrike was carried out by drones against a vehicle carrying several ISIS-K terrorists, including one suicide bomber. And while the strike targeted only the vehicle in question, it set off “significant secondary explosions,” indicating a “substantial amount of explosive material” inside the vehicle, according to a statement released by the U.S. Central Command.

The statement noted that the U.S. “will remain vigilant for potential future threats.”

On Thursday, two suicide bombers and gunmen, later identified as ISIS-K terrorists, attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport, killing dozens of Afghan citizens and 13 U.S. service members.

The attacks came amid expedited efforts by the U.S. to evacuate its forces from the Taliban-ruled country. However, it seems like ISIS-K are taking advantage of the situation, with more potential attacks carried out as the evacuation process continues.

President Joe Biden pledged to retaliate against the attack by carrying out extensive airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group.

Earlier Sunday, the U.S. embassy in Kabul issued a security alert over “a specific, credible threat,” urging all U.S. citizens to leave the area of the Kabul airport “immediately.”

Biden had previously warned that another attack in Kabul was “highly likely.”

Biden has said that the U.S. will stick to its deadline for withdrawing all American troops from Afghanistan, which ends this Tuesday, August 31.