U.S. retaliates against ISIS with drone strike in Afghanistan
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 5 years ago • 19 commentsBy: Courtney Kube and Dartunorro Clark
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
U.S. military forces conducted a drone strike on Friday against the Islamic State terrorist group in Afghanistan in an apparent retaliatory attack against those who claimed responsibility for the attack outside Kabul's airport.
"U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner," said Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a statement. "The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties."
The ISIS-K, known as Islamic State Khorasan, claimed responsibility for the "martyrdom attack" on Thursday that involved a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive belt at the airport's gate, killing 13 U.S. service members and more than 110 Afghans. More than 100 were wounded in the blasts.
The U.S military is not aware of any civilian casualties in the strike, the officials said.
President Joe Biden vowed in a Thursday speech that the U.S. would respond to the attacks "with force."
"To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," Biden said of the Kabul airport attack hours earlier that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians.
He went further in vowing that "we will rescue the Americans who are there, we will get our Afghan allies out." U.S.
Two U.S. defense officials familiar with the strike told NBC News that the target of tonight's drone strike was an ISIS-K fighter thought to be involved in planning for future attacks. The strike was in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan, where ISIS-K had a large presence several years ago before being largely ousted by the Afghan military and the Taliban.
The unnamed ISIS-K planner was riding in a vehicle with one associate at the time of the strike, was driving in an isolated area. The defense officials said the strike was carried out by an MQ-9 Reaper drone and munitions that were selected for precision and in order to minimize any civilian casualties.
Pentagon officials said 5,000 troops remain on the ground in Afghanistan. Around 1,500 Americans remained in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, with just a few days to complete airlifts before the Aug. 31 deadline. By Thursday, the U.S. had evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 100,100 people since Aug. 14.
Biden said earlier this week he had asked the Pentagon and the State Department for contingency plans if Afghanistan evacuations are not complete by the deadline.
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Apparently the Taliban wants Ross Wilson to stay and keep an open diplomatic dialogue.
still developing...
This should get interesting.
Of course they do. With how compliant Biden has been they want to see how much they can loot the US for.
Bidding war between China, Russia, and the US over the drones and high tech US hardware.
I said before the Taliban could hold US civilians hostage and charge 1 million to 5 million per person for safe return. Taliban are probably thinking about a much larger dollar amount than that.
The Taliban are not, and never will be, our allies. The fact Biden Administration officials are talking about the Taliban in terms of allies now when it comes to security is beyond worrisome.
Thanks for the link..
"I report, you decide"
I have been a drop out Split .. now I am back absorbing all I can .. Foreign affairs fascinate me. This mess in Afghanistan was so predictable, but being buddy buddy with the Taliban is mind blowing...
That it is, but perhaps Thrawn or someone else who spent considerable time there can confirm.
Many times those fighting each other on the ground would call the Afghan police on their cell phones and ask to speak to an American to convince them to do an air strike on their enemy. Some times the Afghans would do it, sometimes the Americans would do it.
It was always Taliban wanting to target ISIS or the TTP another group of whackos that want to overthrow Pakistan.
Sometimes the air strikes were carried out to keep battle away from a town.
But the Taliban were always willing to talk.
Don't forget Germany then Japan, now the Vietnamese are all allies and large trading partners.
The pattern already exists.
True .. good point .. this just does not seem right to me .. I have an X that was there many times .. have not heard from him in about 7 years, he emailed Thursday to express his lack of purpose, does not know what he fought/killed for if we are now going to ally with the Taliban...
I have hope for the future of women if Afghanistan .. but not going to hold my breath
60% of the population is under the age of 24
At least in the cities, most women have had the advantage of an education including learning English.
There are only 80,000 to 100,000 Taliban, against 36 million people used to a large degree of freedom.
It will be interesting to watch if they compromise with each other.
One down, 2199 to go.
Biden's speech reinforces my belief that Life Imitates Art. He said "We will hunt you down and make you pay," In the movie "Taken", LIam Neeson said on the phone to the man who kidnapped his daughter: "I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."
Ah! Great movie. We are leaving, and giving them Afghanistan back to do with as they wish. And incoherently ISIS-K, who says they want the West out of their country, just made sure the West have a right to "over-horizon" fire into and "hug" their country close. So "Taken."
When I heard about this last night, I could not believe my ears. Last night the word 'retaliation' was not being used .. and it was said that there was no indication that this 'planner' had anything to do with the suicide bombing ... this unnamed 'planner' may be responsible for planning future attacks?
This is just wrong on so many levels. I did not agree with Trump taking out the Iranian dude, yet 'we' knew what he was and what he was capable of - now 'we' are just striking targets based on speculation - where did this intel come from .. the Taliban?
I find this frustrating .. 'we' are acting like the terrorists if this is how 'we' are hunting down those responsible for harming American soldiers. 'We' are better than this .. 'we' are negotiating with terrorists and TRUSTING them to protect 'us' ... what could possibly continue to go wrong..?
Peace
This was purely on optics kill. Biden can now claim that ISIS-K has been properly warned; and any further terrorist attacks will be dealt with. Of course the warning of terrorist attacks against the Karzai airport are still coming in fast, so either this guy was planning things out weeks in advance; or he isn't the only planner they have.
Hell, that Clarissa Ward supposedly interviewed an ISIS commander in a hotel room in Kabul 2 weeks ago.
He said he had 600 fighters of all nationalities ready to disrupt any Taliban operations or government organizing.
I saw it and thought is this a prank on the reporter or what?
Yep .. the 'planner' killed was a 'suspected future planner' .. that is why I wonder where the intel came from. I do not know what 'we' are doing .. 'we' killed a man base on speculation, guess that is okay in the current environment? ..
If ISIS K really exists of course they have more than one 'planner' ... and if they are real, they are a subsidiary/ally of Daesh and the Taliban .. of that I have no doubt...
Regardless .. 'we' as a nation cannot consent to our government murdering people based on speculation - I question US 'intelligence' after what has happened in Afghanistan ... trusting the Taliban has my head shaking worse that the night Trump was elected .. I am afraid this is now a permanent condition
Probably using the same "intelligence" Obama used on his many, many drone strikes on "suspected" sites.
Awww yes .. the infamous double tap king, then claim no citizens were killed .. that practice cannot happen again or 'we' are no better than them. are 'we' taking the moral high ground because 'we' do not strap the bombs to a person ...?
I'm even wondering if there really was a strike against anyone. There is no western media left in the country to speak of and no pictures, that I know of, of the strike area.
Would not surprise me if this lying administration just said they made a strike to get some of the heat off them.
Why wonder? Some of you conservatives can try getting on an airplane and go look for yourselves. Now, how about that? Oh, and while traveling overseas (where freedoms are flimsy at best-do mask up! We don't want SARS-Cov-2 to hitch a free ride back with you!