On Thursday, President Joe Biden condemned the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in his speech on Thursday, which resulted in the deaths of 13 American soldiers and countless Afghans:
“For those who carried out this attack, and anyone who wants the United States to be harmed, know: we will not forgive,” the president said. “We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
After many days of disastrous phone calls and mixed messages, the American people lost confidence in Biden’s handling of the Afghan crisis he caused himself.
This makes this retaliatory strike even more surprising.
From Associated Press:
President Biden promised to retaliate against the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul Airport. The US military said it used a drone attack on Saturday to kill a member of the Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch.
At the time of the strike, the White House said there were signs that as the U.S.-led Kabul airport evacuation operation entered the final days, IS planned to launch another attack. Biden has set Tuesday as the deadline to complete the exit.
A defense official who asked not to be named said that Biden authorized the drone attack, which was ordered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who spoke on condition of anonymity and provided details that have not been publicly announced.
The attack plan was implemented less than two days after the Kabul airport attack. In addition to the information that the airstrike was launched from outside Afghanistan, the U.S. Central Command reported that the drone attack was organized in Nangarhar Province and targeted an Islamic State member believed to be involved in planning an attack on the United States in Kabul. . CentCom spokesperson Marine Captain William Urban said the man had been killed and he believed that the attack did not cause civilian injuries. Few other details were provided, and it is unclear whether the ISIS member was involved in the actual bomb attack at Kabul Airport.
The speed of the US military’s retaliation reflects its close surveillance of the Islamic State and years of experience in combating extremists in remote areas of the world. But this also shows that the United States has limited power to eliminate the threat of extremism. Some people believe that since the Taliban are in power, they will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan.
