Thirteen members of the U.S. military were killed and 18 more were injured in the attack at Kabul’s airport, U.S. authorities said, while President Joseph Biden announced he has ordered military commanders “to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities,” CNN reported on website.
Speaking to journalists at the White House, Biden said the U.S. “will respond with force and precision in our time, in a place we choose in a manner of our choosing,” declining to give specifics on timing. “These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans. We will get our Afghan allies out. And our mission will go on,” the President said. “America will not be intimidated.”
Earlier in the day Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of the U.S. Central Command, said “it’s a hard day today.” The attack, he explained in a televised briefing organized by the Pentagon, included two suicide bombers followed by gunmen opening fire. There were at least two explosions near a gate at the Kabul airport today. They came as the US and other countries race to evacuate people ahead of President Biden’s Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.
More than 60 Afghans are dead and at least 140 wounded, an official with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health told CNN.
The blasts come as the U.S. and other countries race to evacuate people ahead of Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline. Prior to Thursday, the last America troops killed in Afghanistan were in February 2020.
The White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, defended the government position and responded to Republicans calling on President Biden to resign in the wake of the bombings by saying “it’s not a day for politics.” In a briefing with journalists, Psaki added “we would expect that any American, elected or not, would stand with us in our commitment to going after and fighting and killing those terrorists wherever they live. And to honoring the memory of service members. And that’s what this day is for,” CNN reported.
