Child is killed in rocket attack: US air strike takes out an ISIS-K suicide bombers driving to the airport in a car rigged with explosives as separate incident decimates family home leaving a child dead
- A child has been killed in an explosion as the US launched a military strike targeting ISIS-K militants in Kabul
- Explosion has been heard in Kabul just hours after the US Embassy ordered all staff to leave the airport
- Security official from the recently deposed government said it was a rocket that hit a house
- Joe Biden has said that commanders informed him an attack is ‘highly likely’ in the next 24-36 hours
- It follows the US drone strike on ISIS-K in revenge for the suicide blast in Kabul that killed 13 US
- Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said US should have warned the group before strike on ISIS-K
- Pentagon said two ISIS-K terror plotters were killed and one wounded in Friday’s strike in Afghanistan
- Meanwhile the evacuation of Kabul is entering its final hours ahead of Biden’s Tuesday deadline
- Pentagon says 6,800 people were evacuated in past 24 hours, with 1,400 still in processing at airport
A child was killed today in an explosion in Kabul – as a US drone strike took out a vehicle containing ‘multiple suicide bombers’ driving to the airport just hours after Joe Biden warned of the possibility of another jihadist atrocity following this week’s attack.
Two US officials speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that American forces launched a strike in the capital city targeting suspected ISIS-K militants who were aiming to attack Hamid Karzai International Airport, where Afghans are trying to flee the Taliban.
A Kabul police chief later claimed that a child had been killed after a rocket struck a house in the Khajeh Baghra area to the north-west of the airport, in what is thought to be a separate incident. Two witnesses said the blast appeared to have been caused by a rocket.
A security official from the recently deposed government told AFP a house was struck. A source at the Afghan Ministry of Health separately told the BBC the blast was near the airport, while two witnesses told Reuters a house north of the airport was struck by a rocket.
There was no official confirmation and no terrorist group immediately claimed the attack. A US official told CBS: ‘We are confident we hit the target we were aiming for. Initial reports indicate there were no civilian casualties.’ The official added that the drone strike caused ‘significant secondary explosions’ indicating the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material in the vehicle.