WASHINGTON — U.S. forces on Friday carried out a strike in Afghanistan against the terrorist organization believed responsible for the devastating bombing that killed at least 88 people near the Kabul airport a day earlier.
“U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” said Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command. He added that the unmanned assault took place in Afghanistan’s Nangahar Province.
The person was suspected of being involved in plotting future attacks, but had no direct link to Thursday’s assault in Kabul, according to a U.S. official.
The official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the operation, added that the target was killed by a Reaper drone while traveling in a vehicle.
“Initial indications are that we killed the target,” Urban said in a statement. “We know of no civilian casualties.”
Thirteen U.S. service members and at least 75 Afghan citizens died in what the Pentagon now says was a single suicide bombing rather than the two previously reported.
President Joe Biden vowed to complete the U.S. evacuation mission in Afghanistan and pledged to pursue the attackers, saying Thursday evening that “we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay.”
Asked earlier Friday whether Biden would order a mission to kill those responsible for the bombing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters: “He does not want them to live on the Earth anymore.”
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