Joe Biden puts his words into action: shortly after the bloody terrorist attack at Kabul airport, he threatened the IS militia with revenge. Less than 48 hours later, the US military strikes.
In retaliation for the devastating suicide attack at Kabul airport, the US army launched a drone attack on a “planner” of the regional branch of the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan. Because of the persistent risk of an attack, the US embassy called on its compatriots in Kabul to stay away from the airport. After the Bundeswehr, France also ended its evacuation flights on Friday evening.
In the drone attack in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, which was controlled from another country, the first indications were that “the target was killed,” said Bill Urban of the US Central Command. The Afghan subsidiary of ISIS – Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) – claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 85 people on Thursday, including 13 US soldiers. Some media report almost 200 deaths.
The US Department of Defense corrected its information on the attack. So it was the act of a single suicide bomber. At first, the Pentagon had spoken of two explosions. According to US information, gunmen opened fire after the explosion and killed more people.
Another attack “likely”
US President Joe Biden announced retaliation. “We’ll hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said to the masterminds. The attack was the most loss-making attack on the US Army in the Hindu Kush in ten years. In addition, dozens of Afghans died desperately hoping for a place on one of the last western evacuation flights.
The US embassy in Kabul called on its compatriots to “move immediately” away from the airport gates. “US citizens who are currently at Abbey Gate, East Gate, North Gate or the gate of the New Home Office should leave immediately,” said the US Embassy in a new security warning on its website.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned of “concrete and credible threats” at the Afghan capital’s airport. The White House said Biden’s security advisers rated another attack as “likely”. The next few days are the “most dangerous period so far” of the mission, said Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Despite everything, evacuation flights should take place “until the last moment,” as US General Hank Taylor said. According to the US, more than 5,000 people are still waiting for a chance to leave the airport. Thousands more people are hoping for a place in an evacuation machine outside the airport.
The Bundeswehr ended evacuation flights on Thursday
The US wants to withdraw all soldiers from Afghanistan by next Tuesday. The irony of history after 20 years of military service: In order to ensure that the evacuations are carried out and to protect against ISIS, the US soldiers must work more closely with the Taliban. The head of the US troops at the airport, Peter Vasely, is in constant contact with the Taliban representative, who is responsible for security outside.
The Bundeswehr ended its rescue flights from Kabul on Thursday, as did the Netherlands and Australia. Spain, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland followed on Friday, and France ended its evacuation flights in the evening, as Defense Minister Florence Parly announced.
The soldiers of the Bundeswehr returned to Germany on Friday evening. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) thanked the returnees: “Our country is proud of you,” Steinmeier wrote on the online networks Facebook and Instagram.
“They saw and experienced incredible things” and “achieved incredible things,” said Kramp-Karrenbauer at the air base in Wunstorf, Lower Saxony. “We all in Germany owe them and the men and women of the Bundeswehr their task force in a very deep debt,” said Kramp-Karrenbauer to the returnees and their commander Jens Arlt.
According to the US government, around 109,000 people have been flown out since August 14, the day before the radical Islamic Taliban came to power in Kabul.
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