The United States has revealed that it destroyed an explosive-laden vehicle with an airstrike in Kabul on Sunday, just a few hours after President Joe Biden warned of another terror attack in the capital as a massive airlift of tens of thousands of Afghans entered its last days.
A spokesman confirmed the incident, saying a car bomb destined for the airport had been destroyed — and that a possible second strike had hit a nearby house.
The US said it had only struck the vehicle, but added that secondary blasts indicated ‘a substantial amount of explosive material’.
And with just two days to go until the agreed-upon date for US withdrawal, the Taliban revealed their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was in southern Afghanistan and planning to make a public appearance.
‘He is present in Kandahar. He has been living there from the very beginning,’ said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
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‘He will soon appear in public,‘ added deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi of the leader, whose whereabouts have remained largely unknown and who has never made a public appearance.
The US airstrike came after a suicide bomber from the Islamic State group on Thursday targeted US troops stopping huge crowds of people from entering Kabul’s airport. About 114,000 people have been evacuated since August 15, when the Taliban swept back into power.
Africa Daily News, New York understands that more than 100 people died in the attack, including 13 US service personnel. Biden traveled Sunday to an air force base in Delaware to attend the somber ritual transfer of their remains.
The attack and terror threats have slowed the airlift ahead of Biden’s deadline for evacuations to end by Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday disclosed that some 300 Americans still in Afghanistan were desperate to leave the country.
‘They are not going to be stuck in Afghanistan,’ National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on the Fox network, adding that the US had ‘a mechanism to get them out’.
The Pentagon said Saturday that retaliation drone strikes had killed two ‘high-level’ IS jihadists in eastern Afghanistan, but Biden warned of more imminent attacks from the group.
The US embassy in Kabul later released a warning of credible threats at specific areas of the airport, including access gates.
In recent years, the Islamic State’s Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in those countries.
They have massacred civilians at mosques, public squares, schools, and even hospitals.
On Saturday, Taliban fighters escorted a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US forces for evacuation.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
