Airstrike kills attack plotter, U.S. reports

Military says ISIS group hit in Afghanistan; airlift still on

Afghans lie on beds at a hospital after they were wounded in the deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
Afghans lie on beds at a hospital after they were wounded in the deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A U.S. drone strike early today killed a militant in the group blamed for the deadly suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, U.S. officials said, while American forces working under heightened security and threats of another attack pressed ahead in the closing days of the U.S.-led evacuation from Afghanistan.

The attack in eastern Afghanistan killed a member of the country's Islamic State affiliate, U.S. Central Command said. President Joe Biden has laid responsibility for Thursday's suicide bombing on the Islamic State, an extremist group that is an enemy to both the West and Afghanistan's Taliban and is known for mass-casualty attacks.

The death toll in the suicide bombing rose to 13 U.S. service members and 169 Afghans, including children, a number that could increase as authorities examine fragmented remains.

"U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner," Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement, referring to the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan, also known as Islamic State Khorasan, which has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.

"The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan," Urban said. "Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties."

U.S. officials gave no immediate information on the person killed, including any possible link to the suicide bombing.

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On Friday, the White House and the Pentagon warned that there could be more bloodshed ahead of Biden's fast-approaching deadline Tuesday to end the airlift and withdraw American forces. The next few days "will be our most dangerous period to date" in the evacuation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Thursday's bombing marked one of the deadliest attacks the country has seen. The U.S. said it was the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011.

As the call to prayer echoed through Kabul on Friday along with the roar of departing planes, the anxious crowds thronging the airport in hope of escaping Taliban rule appeared as large as ever, despite the scenes of victims lying closely packed together in the aftermath of the bombing. Another report, however, suggested the crowds numbered in the hundreds rather than the thousands of previous days.

Around the world, newly arriving Afghan evacuees, many clutching babies and bare handfuls of belongings in plastic bags, stepped off flights in the United States, in Albania, Belgium and beyond.

In Kabul on Friday, Afghan families looked for loved ones among the bodies -- placed along a hospital sidewalk for identification -- of bombing victims who died pleading for a seat on the U.S.-run airlift.

Afghans, American citizens and other foreigners were all acutely aware that the window was closing to get out.

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Jamshad went to the airport Friday with his wife and three children. He clutched an invitation to a Western country that he didn't want to identify.

"After the explosion I decided I would try. Because I am afraid now there will be more attacks, and I think now I have to leave," said Jamshad, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

A man who identified himself as Mohammad, from Khost, said he had hoped to fly out Friday but that he felt "stuck." He was unable to get into the airport and said the Taliban had been looking for former soldiers and media workers.

"I don't feel safe here anymore," he said.

SINGLE BOMBER

The Pentagon said Friday that there was just one suicide bomber -- at the airport gate -- not two, as U.S. officials initially said. A U.S. official said the bomber carried a much-heavier-than-usual amount of about 25 pounds of explosives, loaded with shrapnel.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the attack. The officials who gave the Afghan death toll also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The Afghan victims ranged from a hard-working young journalist to an impoverished father, driven to to the airport by hopes of a better life.

The American dead were 11 Marines, a Navy sailor and an Army soldier. Many had been children when U.S. forces first entered Afghanistan in 2001.

One, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Mae'lee Grant Nikoui, sent a video to a family friend in the United States just hours before he was killed, showing himself smiling and greeting Afghan children.

"Want to take a video together, buddy?" Nikoui asked a young boy, leaning in to be in the picture with him. "All right, we're heroes now, man."

British officials said two of its country's citizens and the child of another Briton were among those killed.

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On the morning after the attack, the Taliban used a pickup full of fighters and three captured Humvees to set up a barrier 1,600 feet from the airport, holding the crowds farther back from the U.S. troops at the gates.

U.S. military officials said some gates were closed and other security measures put in place. They said there were tighter restrictions at Taliban checkpoints and fewer people around the gates. The military said that it also had asked the Taliban to close certain roads because of the possibility of suicide bombers in vehicles.

The Pentagon said the U.S. would keep up manned and unmanned flights over the airport for surveillance and protection, including the use of AC-130 gunships.

U.S. officials said evacuees with proper credentials still were being allowed through the gates. Inside, about 5,400 evacuees awaited flights.

'WORTHY MISSION'

In Washington, U.S. commanders briefed Biden on developing plans to strike back at the Islamic State and make good on the president's vow to the attackers to "hunt you down and make you pay."

Psaki said this was his way of saying "he does not want them to live on the earth anymore."

Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff had said that the Pentagon would be prepared to strike back.

"We have options there right now" to enable whatever retaliatory action might be ordered, Taylor said.

Biden pronounced the U.S. effort to evacuate Americans, Afghan allies and others most at risk from the Taliban a "worthy mission."

"And we will complete the mission," he said.

The U.N. Security Council called the targeting of fleeing civilians and those trying to help them "especially abhorrent."

More than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated through the Kabul airport, according to the U.S., but thousands more are struggling to leave in one of history's biggest airlifts.

The White House said Friday that U.S. military aircraft had flown out 2,100 evacuees in the previous 24 hours. Another 2,100 people left on other coalition flights.

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The number was a fraction of the 12,700 people carried out by U.S. military aircraft one day early in the week, when the 2-week-old airlift exceeded the intended capacity for a couple of days.

France ended its own evacuation effort and pulled up stakes at a temporary embassy at the airport. Other U.S. allies and others have ended or are ending their airlifts, in part to give the U.S. time to wrap up its own operations.

"ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing this mission," said Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor.

HARD TARGETS

By promising to strike the extremists who killed Americans as well as Afghans, Biden now confronts the reality of finding and targeting them in an unstable country without U.S. military and intelligence teams on the ground and no help from a friendly government in Kabul.

The president was warned Friday to expect another lethal attack. Psaki said Biden's national security team offered a grim outlook.

"They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport," Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday that pushed the White House deeper into crisis.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the military is monitoring credible, specific Islamic State threats "in real time."

"We certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts," he said.

Kirby said that about 5,000 U.S. service members remain in Kabul but there would be no more updates about their drawdown until all have left, in an effort to keep would-be attackers from exploiting potential vulnerabilities.

He warned that in the days remaining, the military would have to balance the demands of closing its operations at the airport with the mandate to get more civilians out. To make more room on the planes for evacuees, the military is destroying equipment where possible instead of flying it out, Kirby said.

"Lives are still the priority: the lives of our troops and, of course, the lives of evacuees, and continuing to get out as many as possible," he said. "We want to prioritize passenger seats as much as possible."

ASSURANCES DOUBTED

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doubted Biden's assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistan's borders. The Pentagon also insists this so-called over-the-horizon capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.

Harding said she cringes when she hears Biden restate this assurance.

"It's way too rosy an assessment of what's possible," said Harding, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The U.S. is still scrambling to establish bases closer to Afghanistan while at the same time removing people who have worked with the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the country, former officials have said.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the U.S. Central Command chief who is overseeing the airlift and is responsible for all U.S. military operations in the greater Middle East, had said Thursday that the first step will be determining with confidence who carried out the airport attack.

"Yes, if we can find who is associated with this we will go after them," he said. "We've been clear all along that we retain the right to operate against ISIS in Afghanistan, and we are working very hard right now to determine attribution, to determine who is associated with this cowardly attack, and we are prepared to take action against them -- 24/7, we are looking for them."

In an Oval Office appearance Friday, the president again expressed his condolences to the victims of the attack. The return home of U.S. military members' remains in the coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not just of the devastation at the Kabul airport but also of the costly way the war is ending.

More than 2,400 U.S. service members died in the war and tens of thousands were injured over the past two decades. Sorrowful details of those killed Thursday were starting to emerge.

One Marine from Wyoming was on his first tour in Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri whose father was devastated. A third, a 20-year-old from Texas, had joined the armed services out of high school.

Biden ordered U.S. flags to half-staff across the country in honor of the 13.

Information for this article was contributed by Ellen Knickmeyer, Sayed Ziarmal Hashemi, Tameem Akhgar, Kathy Gannon, Lolita C. Baldor, Darlene Superville, Rahim Faiez, Elaine Ganley, Robert Burns, Aamer Madhani, Nomaan Merchant and additional staff members of The Associated Press; by Karoun Demirjian and Alex Horton of The Washington Post; and by Eric Schmitt, Daniel Victor, Zia ur-Rehman, Jim Huylebroek, Megan Specia and Fahim Abed of The New York Times.

Lena McIllece joins neighbors Friday in placing flags in front of the family home of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover in Sandy, Utah. Hoover was among the 13 U.S. troops killed in Thursday’s suicide bombing in Afghanistan, which also claimed the lives of more than 100 Afghans. Hoover had been in the Marines for 11 years, his father, Darin Hoover, said Friday.
(AP/Rick Bowmer)
Lena McIllece joins neighbors Friday in placing flags in front of the family home of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover in Sandy, Utah. Hoover was among the 13 U.S. troops killed in Thursday’s suicide bombing in Afghanistan, which also claimed the lives of more than 100 Afghans. Hoover had been in the Marines for 11 years, his father, Darin Hoover, said Friday. (AP/Rick Bowmer)
Smoke rises from a deadly explosion outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen have targeted crowds massing near the Kabul airport, in the waning days of a massive airlift that has drawn thousands of people seeking to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
Smoke rises from a deadly explosion outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen have targeted crowds massing near the Kabul airport, in the waning days of a massive airlift that has drawn thousands of people seeking to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
Health workers check the temperature of evacuated citizens from Afghanistan upon their arrival at Tirana International Airport in Tirana, Albania, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. A government decision has planned that the Afghans may stay at least a year during which they will proceed with their application for special visas before they move on to the U.S. for final settlement. (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda)
Health workers check the temperature of evacuated citizens from Afghanistan upon their arrival at Tirana International Airport in Tirana, Albania, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. A government decision has planned that the Afghans may stay at least a year during which they will proceed with their application for special visas before they move on to the U.S. for final settlement. (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda)
Evacuated citizens from Afghanistan arrive at Tirana International Airport in Tirana, Albania, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. A government decision has planned that the Afghans may stay at least a year during which they will proceed with their application for special visas before they move on to the U.S. for final settlement. (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda)
Evacuated citizens from Afghanistan arrive at Tirana International Airport in Tirana, Albania, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. A government decision has planned that the Afghans may stay at least a year during which they will proceed with their application for special visas before they move on to the U.S. for final settlement. (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda)
Military personnel walk by Belgian military planes, used as part of an evacuation from Afghanistan, upon arrival at Melsbroek Military Airport in Melsbroek, Belgium, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)
Military personnel walk by Belgian military planes, used as part of an evacuation from Afghanistan, upon arrival at Melsbroek Military Airport in Melsbroek, Belgium, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)
Afghans carry the dead body of an Afghan at a hospital after deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
Afghans carry the dead body of an Afghan at a hospital after deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
An Afghan lies on beds at a hospital after he was wounded in the deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
An Afghan lies on beds at a hospital after he was wounded in the deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, wait to board a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, wait to board a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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