48 hrs after blast, IS ‘planner’ killed at Nangarhar as US strikes back

The United States attacked an Islamic State “planner” in Afghanistan in retaliation for a deadly bombing outside Kabul airport and said there was a high risk of further blasts as it nears the end of a mission to evacuate civilians and withdraw troops.

Among the scores killed in Thursday’s suicide bomb blast, claimed by an Islamic State affiliate in the country, were 13 US service members, the most lethal incident for US troops in Afghanistan in a decade.

US Central Command said on Friday the overnight drone strike took place in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul and bordering Pakistan.

“Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties,” a US military statement said.

Spokesmen for the Taliban, which completed a rapid takeover of the country this month as US forces withdrew, declined to comment on the drone strike. 

The Islamic State group in Afghanistan is an enemy of the Taliban as well as the West and the Taliban has said it arrested some suspects after the blast.

Up to 170 people, not including the US troops, were killed in the bombing, according to US media including the New York Times, citing health officials. read more The White House said the next few days were likely to be the most dangerous of the US evacuation operation that the Pentagon said has taken about 111,000 people out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US believed there were still “specific, credible” threats against the airport after the bombing at one of its gates.