United States carries out strike against 'credible threat' in Kabul.

[PatSeg]

Last edited Sun Aug 29, 2021, 11:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: New York Times

The United States carried out a military strike in Kabul against a “credible” threat, two U.S. officials said, hours after President Biden warned that the U.S. military’s retaliatory strike Friday against the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate would not be the last.

A drone strike, in Nangarhar Province Friday near the Pakistan border, killed two members of the group, the Pentagon said.

On Sunday, video on social media showed smoke rising from a building in Kabul and people trying to douse it with water. An Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the explosion appeared to have been caused by a rocket that hit a home. It wasn’t immediately clear if the home that was hit was the target of the U.S. strike.

Earlier Sunday, the United States Embassy in the Afghan capital said there was a “specific, credible threat” to the airport area, where a suicide bombing on Thursday killed as many as 170 civilians and 13 members of the American military. State Department officials have issued several similar warnings in recent days.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/kabul-explosion-us-strike.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210829&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=144275770&segment_id=67563&user_id=9300c9e86795a856411ac8bf084cff8b

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Updated story and headline:

The U.S. carries out a strike against a vehicle carrying suicide bombers in Kabul, an official says.

A U.S. military drone strike blew up a vehicle filled with suicide bombers in Kabul on Sunday, a Defense official said, hours after President Biden had warned that a terrorist attack against the Afghan capital’s airport was “highly likely.”

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, Capt. Bill Urban, said the military was trying to determine whether the strike had caused civilian casualties, though he noted that there was no immediate evidence of that. The official who said suicide bombers had been targeted spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a military operation.

“U.S. military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International airport,” Captain Urban said, referring to the Islamic State Khorasan group. He added: “We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/kabul-explosion-us-strike.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210829&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=144275770&segment_id=67563&user_id=9300c9e86795a856411ac8bf084cff8b

[bucolic_frolic]

1. These

suicide bombers in civilian areas ... wonder if they could make use of bomb-sniffing dogs and more remote entrance gates. Design a new way of filtering.

[jaxexpat]

6. I'd bet those, as well as other ideas, made their way into evacuation planning.

It was only 5 weeks ago that people who were supposed to be in the know were saying they anticipated 2500 Afghans who would need visas processed quickly.

per the Guardian on July 14, "A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the initial evacuation would include about 2,500 people..."

Provided that was a "real" number I'd say than the 100,000 plus who've been evacuated represents a huge success in ability to 'rise to the need'.

By this time next week this war, it's cause and it's relatively successful evacuation will be lost to memory unless it suits someone's political aspirations to keep it alive.

My personal hope is that, except as a lesson in geopolitics, it is over and done. I'm not too sure that veterans who've rotated through there would share that opinion. I remember Vietnam being forgotten, even despite greater casualties, for years before we finally left.

But, if the Hostess Twinkies plant shuts down, we made need to invade again to get our "yellow cake".

[PatSeg]

8. "...unless it suits someone's political aspirations to keep it alive."

And sadly republicans will play the 'Afghanistan Evacuation' card every chance they get. Look at how long they kept Benghazi alive. Another of many reasons why we cannot let them get back control of the House and the Senate - endless congressional investigations.

But aside from political fodder, you are right. For most people, this war will become a very distant memory in a short period of time. It is not like the majority of people were paying attention to it anymore.

[ancianita]

14. Then

the Democrats should play the "Syrian NON-Evacuation" card every chance they get. Our side complained about the incompetence of it all, like they are now, but this time, when we compare this to their Syrian job -- leaving 16 military bases, heavy weapons, aircraft and who knows what else for Putin's boys -- the Republicans will knock it off.

[PatSeg]

16. Yes, absolutely

Democrats need to get better at showing what outrageous hypocrites republicans are.

[ancianita]

18. Just remember

to show the facts.

Then show the future.

Show what this nation would now and in the future look like with Trump -- think of the horror of the death counts
-- here from covid,
-- there from the Taliban,
-- here from Ida and every hurricane after,
-- here from the horrors of stalked, jailed women from minority rule in red states,
-- here the wrecked infrastructure, and then
-- the people denied social safety nets, and
-- back to slave wages and massive pollutions.

No hope. Jailed and surveilled Democrats. Civil War.

[PatSeg]

19. Of course there will always be

those who listen, but don't really hear anything other than what they want to believe, but hopefully many others can be reached with the truth.

[ancianita]

20. Yes.

There will always be those who have to learn the hard way and who wait until it hits the fan. Which means that by then it's too late. We have to constantly point these examples out to them so we move the needle.

My position is that we chip away at their numbers now, rather than accept them as a given, so there won't be a massive cleanup to grind us down later.

Meanwhile, fires, floods, hurricanes and pollution are bearing down on all of us.

Climate don't care about our existence. The more we don't shut them down, the more climate will punish our delay. We need to make all our help to them contingent on their acceptance of our premises -- viruses, climate, human rights are real and not a matter of theirs or their owners' PR campaign opinions.

[PatSeg]

24. Well said

[Lonestarblue]

15. Afghanistan will be the Benghazi campaign for 2022.

Republicans will claim that Biden and Democrats cannot be trusted with foreign policy, and they need both houses of Congress to control Biden. Their brain-dead voters will believe them.

[PatSeg]

17. Sadly, it is so predictable

We've seen this movie before many times. They just change some names and dates, but it is the same old routine and the voters with short memories will eat it up.

[Botany]

2. Grown ups are back. Biden, "We will never forgive and we will never forget,"

ISIS K is now on Biden and the US military's radar. It will not work out well for them and the
Taliban in Afghanistan will be fine with us killing them too.


BTW ISIS is a direct result of bush & Cheney's invasion of Iraq. Ambassador Bremer "fired" the
Iraqi Army (they were all Shi or Sunni I forget which sect), they took their guns and went home
and some became al Qadea in Iraq which morphed into ISIS which then caused one of the biggest
human refugee waves in history ....




..... and then D. Trump let ISIS take over much of Syria because that is what Vlad Putin wanted and at the same
time he allowed the slaughter of our allies, the Kurds, by the Turks who had Trump's nuts in a vice because of the murder of Khashoggi by the Saudis working for MBS (Kushner helped to set him, Khashoggi, up) and now ISIS is in Afghanistan killing Americans and their new name ISIS K.



The French warned us about "blow back" in 2002 and 2003.

Sorry to

[PatSeg]

9. Yes, the Bush-Cheney version of trickledown

Years of disaster and mayhem. We are still living with the consequences of their arrogant and reckless decisions. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren probably will as well.

[Botany]

21. Even Dick Nixon before he died saw the rise of the neo cons and warned against the US getting ...

... involved in the middle east or Afghanistan or any of "the Stans."

Rudyard Kipling:

Now it is not good for the Christian’s health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: “A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”

[PatSeg]

25. Excellent quote

I'll bet neither Bush or Cheney ever read it.

[Xoan]

3. Yesterday's news ...

Nangarhar is not in Kabul.

[CanonRay]

5. There was a 2nd strike

[AkFemDem]

7. Todays news.

[PatSeg]

11. The story has been updated

U.S. military drone strike blew up a vehicle filled with suicide bombers in Kabul on Sunday, a Defense official said, hours after President Biden had warned that a terrorist attack against the Afghan capital’s airport was “highly likely.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/kabul-explosion-us-strike.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210829&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=144275770&segment_id=67563&user_id=9300c9e86795a856411ac8bf084cff8b

[JohnnyRingo]

4. I know they're getting good intel on this.

You have to figure, the Taliban wants us out even more than I do, and the attacks by Isis threaten that goal.

I'm sure the Taliban would be more than happy to provide the exact whereabouts of such rebel sects so they won't have to deal with them later.

[PatSeg]

10. I think you're right

[Botany]

22. I think you are right. The Taliban doesn't want ISIS k around and so they might be more than ...

... to give up their locations to the Americans and their allies.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

12. Has there been any reporting of civilian casualties?

Air strikes can have horrible consequences for civilians in the area.

[PatSeg]

13. From the updated article a short while ago:

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, Capt. Bill Urban, said the military was trying to determine whether the strike had caused civilian casualties, though he noted that there was no immediate evidence of that. The official who said suicide bombers had been targeted spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a military operation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/kabul-explosion-us-strike.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210829&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=144275770&segment_id=67563&user_id=9300c9e86795a856411ac8bf084cff8b

[paleotn]

23. Granted, but we're not going to find "the perfect" in Afghanistan.