US says drone strike kills IS-K planner

A Marine with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command lifts an evacuee at Kabul airport. Pic/AFP

The US military said it believes it has killed a planner for the Afghan branch of the Islamic State (IS) terror group in a drone strike in the east of the country, the media reported.

"The US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counter-terrorism operation today against an IS-K planner," US Central Command spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement on Friday night. "The unmanned air-strike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," the statement added.

Urban described the drone attack as an "over-the-horizon counter-terrorism operation". The US drone strike is the first reported in Afghanistan since Thursday's blast.

IS-K, or Islamic State Khorasan Province, is said to be the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant groups in Afghanistan. They claimed responsibility for the deadly attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday that may have killed as many as 170 people, including 13 US service members.

Officials in Washington have warned of heightened terror threats to American troops in the aftermath of what was one of the deadliest attacks in the 20-year US-led invasion in Afghanistan. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed the concern, saying in a press briefing that American officials believe "another terror attack in Kabul is likely".

Islamist terrorists among evacuees?

There is growing concern among the Western allies that Islamist terrorists may have successfully mingled with thousands of Afghans and other foreigners, and some of them may have actually boarded planes for Europe and the US. The concern is sourced from Pentagon, and no less than US President Joe Biden remarked that "terrorists may seek to exploit the situation and target innocent Afghans or American troops". The western media is claiming that nearly a hundred evacuees could be on intelligence watchlists as suspected terrorists.

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