The US military has said it believes it an Isis-K ‘planner’ in its first reprisal strike in Afghanistan after the deadly Kabul attack that left at least 170 people, including 13 US military personnel.
Approximately 36 hours after the suicide bomb attack at Kabul left hundreds dead or wounded and Joe Biden vowed to hunt down those responsible, the US said an unmanned drone had been dispatched to attack a suspected member of Isis, that it described as a “planner”.
It did not say whether the individual was believed linked specifically to the attack on Thursday at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
However, in a statement the US military said it believed the mission to kill the militant had been successful.
“US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an Isis-K planner,” Capt Bill Urban, a spokesman for the US Central Command said in a statement, referring to the Afghanistan-baed Isis franchise tha claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack.
“The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan.”
He added: “Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.”