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On Sunday, Defense officials said the US conducted an airstrike against an ISIS-K vehicle laden with explosives near the airport in Kabul. It marks the 2^nd such strike against the militant group since a deadly attack against US forces last week. A Central Command spokesman, Captain Bill Urban said in a statement that the strike was carried out by a drone and eliminated an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamid Karzai International Airport. Urban said the US is confident the strike hit the target and initial reports indicated there were no civilian casualties. Urban said that significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material. A senior aide to the Taliban spokesman, Bilal Karimi said the airstrike hit the vehicle near the airport.

Karimi said that 3 suspected individuals were in the vehicle at the time of the strike. He said the US military had told the Taliban that a vehicle full of explosives would arrive in Kabul and that the US would destroy it. It is noteworthy that last week’s attack on the Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport left at least 170 dead, including 13 US service members. US officials said a member of ISIS-K carried out the bombing and vowed to retaliate against those responsible. Pentagon officials said that a US airstrike on Friday killed 2 high-profile ISIS-K planners and facilitators and wounded another. Sunday morning’s strike came after the State Department issued an alert warning people not to come to the airport because of a specific, credible threat. The operations against ISIS-K militants came as the US rushes to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies from the city ahead of President Biden’s withdrawal deadline of August 31.

The White House said the US facilitated the evacuation of 2,900 people from the capital over a 24-hour period started on Saturday morning and have helped 114 thousand people leave since 14^th August. The National Security adviser, Jake Sullivan said that the US would continue to go after the ISIS-K militants who orchestrated the attack at the airport. Sullivan said, “The president is also going to talk to his commanders about whatever set of tools and capabilities they need to get the people who attacked and killed our troops at the Kabul airport and to make sure that we are degrading and debilitating the group, ISIS-K that conducted this attack. So, yes, we will continue to take the kinds of over-the-horizon strikes as we did over the weekend against the ISIS-K facilitators and plotters. And, yes, we will consider other operations to go after these guys, to get them and to take them off the battlefield”.