US says drone kills IS bombers targeting Kabul airport

[George II]

Source: Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. drone strike blew up a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate on Sunday before they could attack the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul’s international airport, American officials said.

The strike came just two days before the U.S. is set to conclude a massive airlift of tens of thousands of Afghan and foreign civilians and withdraw the last of its troops, ending America’s longest war with the Taliban back in power.

The U.S. State Department released a statement signed by around 100 countries, as well as NATO and the European Union, saying they had received “assurances” from the Taliban that people with travel documents would still be able to leave the country freely. The Taliban have said they will allow normal travel after the U.S. withdrawal is completed on Tuesday and they assume control of the airport.

At around the same time as the drone strike, Afghan police said a rocket hit a neighborhood near the airport, killing a child. Rashid, the Kabul police chief, who goes by one name, confirmed the rocket attack, and video obtained by The Associated Press showed smoke rising from a building around a kilometer (half a mile) from the airport.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-kabul-us-taliban-9da4da11b5c8d00445b57aee297bd270

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[Botany]

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

n/t

[madville]

24. Guess drone strike civilian casualties are back as well

10 civilians, 6 children, reportedly killed in Sunday's drone strike.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/asia/us-drone-strike-evacuation.html

A senior U.S. military official responded that the military was confident that no civilians had been in the targeted vehicle but acknowledged that the detonation of the explosives in it could have caused “collateral damage.”

[Botany]

25. And how many civilians including women and children would have been killed and or maimed if ....

.... suicide bombers hadn't been taken out as they were sitting in the vehicle getting ready to
go out and do damage?

How many people were injured and or killed by the last ISIS' terror bombing outside of the
airport?

[madville]

26. If we want to define it solely by net civilian casualties, yes that's a success

Many seem to subscribe to the theory that if they kill 100 innocent civilians we are now morally justified to kill up to 99. When a Republican administration is doing it, they are war criminals, but when Democrats are doing it, it's USA, USA, USA!!! The hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[yaesu]

2. good thing religious fanatics aren't smart enough to stay off cellphones. nt

[Botany]

3. I think the Taliban is giving up their locations. They don't want ISIS k in Afghanistan.

n/t

[yaesu]

4. I'm hoping they had something to do with it. Kind of like Vietnam fighting the Khmer Rouge. nt

[karynnj]

27. Could also be something that will sometimes target people the Taliban want out

If ISIS K it is WIN win, but in an earlier phase one worry about intelligence from locals is that they use us to kill their enemies.

[crud]

7. I've been thinking the same thing

Probably gave info on the first drone strike too.

[dalton99a]

10. +1. The Taliban and the CIA are talking to each other

[Dopers_Greed]

11. After the US is out, the Taliban will be up against an ISIS-K insurgency

[Justice matters.]

15. At this rate, there won't be much ISIS-K terrorists left... n/t

[GregariousGroundhog]

17. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan will probably be the Taliban's most serious threat

Vice President Saleh fled to Panjshir province and is working with former Northern Alliance members, who controlled roughly the northern quarter of Afghanistan in the 1990s. Given the Taliban's public statements, I'm curious if they are going to try to pursue some sort of power sharing agreement.

ISIS-K will be in the mix, but they are likely to be small relative to the factions supported by Iran, Pakistan, and/or Tajikistan.

[oldsoftie]

22. And apparently THEY have some aircraft too.

If they have that then they probably also have some heavy weapons

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

14. I'm thinking we have have drones that can detect explosives at a distance.

There's probably hundreds of concealed surveillance cameras around the airport as well.

[IronLionZion]

5. Very Obama-esque

Trump would have sent some unhinged tweets about it

[oldsoftie]

6. Good. Minimal damage; proper folks dead.

And dont forget, I imagine a LOT of the arms left behind will be destroyed from the air soon after we depart.

[SunSeeker]

8. And tanks, trucks, etc will be useless without constant maintenance and parts replacement. nt

[AverageOldGuy]

9. Back in Vietnam . . .

. . . I loved the smell of napalm in the morning . . . or noon or night, for that matter . . . and the crispy critters it left.

This stuff is WAYYYY better. Safer, too, don't have to get so close to them.

[Bengus81]

12. Got what they wanted...to DIE

BTW,is that some crispy person in the back seat?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. According to eyewitnesses, nine family members, including six kids, were killed.

[Justice matters.]

16. If so, they probably drive around with their kids hoping they will shield them

from incoming rockets from drones.

How many innocent kids did they "suicide bomb" this week?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. Whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.

[Justice matters.]

19. I have zero sympathy for suicide bombers.

No problem sleeping.

[totodeinhere]

21. Neither do I, but if innocent civilians are killed in the process I mourn for them.

I guess we don't know if they were innocent civilians or terrorists using children as shields. If they were the later I have zero sympathy for the terrorists but I do sympathize with those who were being used as shields.

[madville]

23. Maybe they go by net civilian kid deaths when they justify a mission

If a suicide bomber blows up 20 kids, then as long as we kill 19 or less in our retaliation, it can be presented as a successful mission

[Justice matters.]

28. They USE their OWN kids as human shields (against International Law)

The kids they kill at large by blowing themselves up while hiding in crowds are not there as a deterrent. They're there because their parents are there, hoping to become refugees.

BIG difference.

[madville]

29. And you know that they are the terrorists' kids how?

What leads you to believe they were the terrorists’ kids that we may have blown up and not just some neighborhood kids playing in the street where the car parked?

[videohead5]

20. Afghanistan was a intelligence failure

Biden's choices were pull Americans out of Afghanistan early that would have also pulled the rug out from under the Afghan government and the Taliban would start their takeover as soon as we started flying people out. The consensus from our intelligence agencies was two or three months before the Afghan army fell. Biden thought that the Afghan army would hold up long enough to get everyone out if we needed to. The Afghan army just quit. Probably bribed by the Taliban.