A US drone attack blew up a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from the Afghan ISIS offshoot on Sunday before they could attack the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul International Airport, American officials said.
The attack came just two days before the US finalizes a massive two-week airlift with more than 114,000 Afghans and foreigners and withdraws the last of its troops to end America’s longest war with the Taliban again in power.
The US State Department released a statement signed by around 100 countries, NATO and the European Union, which stated that they had received “assurances” from the Taliban that people with travel documents would still be able to leave the country. The Taliban have announced that they will allow normal travel and take control of the airport after the US withdrawal is complete on Tuesday.
Around the same time as the drone strike, Afghan police said a missile hit a neighborhood near the airport, killing a child. Rashid, the Kabul police chief known by one name, confirmed the missile attack, and a video obtained from The Associated Press showed smoke rising from a building about a kilometer from the airport.
The Taliban called the drone and missile strikes separate incidents, but AP reporters in the Afghan capital heard only one large explosion.
Two American military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, called the airstrike successful and said the vehicle carried several bombers.
US Navy Capt.Bill Urban, a military spokesman, said the attack was carried out in “self-defense”. He said the military was investigating whether there were civilian casualties but “we currently have no evidence”.
“We are confident that we have successfully achieved the goal,” said Urban. “Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a significant amount of explosive material.”
The attack came two days after an Islamic State suicide bombing outside the airport that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 US soldiers. The US carried out a drone attack elsewhere in the country on Saturday that killed two ISIS members.
President Joe Biden had vowed to continue the air strikes and said Saturday that another attack was “very likely.” The State Department described the threat as “specific” and “credible”.
ISIS Sunni extremists, who have ties to the group’s more well-known offshoots in Syria and Iraq, have carried out a series of attacks primarily targeting the Shiite Muslim minority in Afghanistan, including an attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul in 2020 where women were killed and newborn babies.
The Taliban have fought against IS in the past and have pledged not to allow Afghanistan as a base for terrorist attacks. The US-led invasion of 2001 came in response to the 9/11 attacks planned and carried out by al-Qaeda under the protection of the Taliban.
The Taliban increased security around the airport after Thursday’s attack and cleared away the large crowds that had gathered outside the gates to join the airlift.
Britain ended its evacuation flights on Saturday, and most of its US allies ended their flights earlier this week. But U.S. military cargo planes continued into the airport on Sunday before President Joe Biden’s deadline for the withdrawal of all American troops on Tuesday.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US is in a position to evacuate the estimated 300 Americans who want to stay in the country and leave. He said the US does not currently plan to have a permanent embassy presence after the withdrawal, but will ensure “safe passage for every American citizen, legal permanent residence” and “the Afghans who helped us” after Tuesday .
In interviews with Sunday talk shows, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would work with other countries to ensure that the airport operates normally after the departure and that the Taliban allow people to travel freely.
The Taliban have made similar assurances in the past few days, despite urging Afghans to stay and help rebuild the war-ravaged country.
Tens of thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country since the Taliban’s swift takeover earlier this month, fearing a return to the harsh Islamic rule the group imposed on Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Others fear attacks of revenge or general instability.
The Taliban have pledged amnesty to all Afghans, including those who have worked with the US and its allies, saying they want to restore peace and security after decades of war. However, many Afghans distrust the group, and there have been reports of summary executions and other human rights violations in Taliban-controlled areas.
The shooting of a folk singer in a tense region north of Kabul should add to such fears. Fawad Andarabi’s family said the Taliban shot him for no reason just days after they ransacked his home and had tea with him.
“He was innocent, a singer who just entertained people,” said his son Jawad. “You shot him in the head on the farm.”
The shooting took place in the Andarabi Valley, after which the family is named, about 100 kilometers north of Kabul, where the Taliban fought against local fighters even after taking the capital. The Taliban say they have recaptured the region near mountainous Panjshir, the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces not under Taliban control.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said his group would investigate the shooting without providing any further information. The Taliban banned music as un-Islamic when they last ruled the country.
Andarabi played the ghichak, a bowed lute, and sang traditional songs about his place of birth, his people and the country. A video on the Internet showed him at a performance, sitting on a carpet with the mountains behind him.
“There is no country in the world like my homeland, a proud nation,” he sang. “Our beautiful valley, the home of our great-grandparents.”
Karima Bennoune, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, said she was “very concerned” about Andarabi’s murder. “We urge governments to ask the Taliban to respect the #human rights of #artists,” she tweeted.
Amnesty International’s general secretary, Agnes Callamard, also condemned the killing.
“There is growing evidence that the Taliban of 2021 is the same as the intolerant, violent and repressive Taliban of 2001,” she tweeted. “Nothing has changed on this front.”
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Baldor reported from Washington, Akhgar from Istanbul and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
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