Taliban says US airstrike hit suicide bomber targeting Kabul airport, condemns overnight attack

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The US military confirmed that it targeted an "explosive-laden vehicle" headed towards Kabul's international airport where the American military is involved in an evacuation operation.

"US military forces conducted a self-defence unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamid Karzai International airport," said Capt Bill Urban, spokesman of the US Central Command.

"We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material," Urban said. The US is assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though it has no indications at this time. "We remain vigilant for potential future threats," Urban said in a statement.

A Taliban spokesman earlier said in a message to journalists in Afghanistan that the US strike targeted a suicide bomber as he drove a vehicle loaded with explosives. Sunday's drone strike was the second by the US since the twin blasts at the Kabul airport that killed 169 Afghans and 13 American soldiers.

On August 28, the US military said that it carried out a drone strike in Afghanistan, killing two high-profile "planners and facilitators" of the Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, dubbed Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, which had claimed responsibility for the attack at the Kabul airport on August 26.

"Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, and one was wounded. And we know of zero civilian casualties," Maj Gen Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff For Regional Operations, told reporters on Saturday. Earlier, President Joe Biden had vowed to "hunt" down the terrorists and make them "pay" for the Kabul airport attack and ordered his commanders to develop plans to strike back at them.

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"To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm notice, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command," Biden had said in his remarks at the White House on August 26.

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