A U.S. drone strike early Saturday 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 both to the West and to Afghanistan’s Taliban and is known for especially lethal attacks.
The death toll in the suicide bombing rose to 169 Afghans, a number that could increase as authorities examine fragmented remains, and 13 U.S. service members. The command spokesman, Navy Capt. William Urban, said officials knew of no civilian casualties. U.S. officials gave no immediate information on the person killed, including any possible link to the suicide bombing.
The White House and the Pentagon warned there could be more bloodshed ahead of President Joe 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, hours before the U.S. issued a security alert for four of the airport gates.
Thursday’s bombing marked one of the most lethal 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 Friday through Kabul 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.
Around the world, newly arriving Afghan evacuees, many clutching babies and bare handfuls of belongings in plastic bags, stepped off evacuation flights in the United States, in Albania, in Belgium and beyond. In Kabul on Friday, Afghan families looked for loved ones among bodies, placed along a hospital sidewalk for identification, of bombing victims who died pleading for a seat on the U.S.-run airlifts.
Afghans, American citizens and other foreigners were all acutely aware the window was closing to get out via the airlift. Jamshad went to the airport Friday with his wife and three small children. He clutched an invitation to a Western country he didn’t want to identify.
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“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. 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 that the suicide bomber carried a heavier-than-usual load of about 25 pounds of explosives, loaded with shrapnel. The U.S. 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.
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