The drone strike took place while remaining civilians waited at Hamid Karzai International Airport to be flown out before the last troops leave, a Western security official said. A Taliban official told Reuters the Islamist group had engineers and technicians ready to take charge of the airport. Biden has vowed to go after the perpetrators and the United States said on Saturday it had killed two ISIS-K militants in a drone strike the day before. The Taliban also appealed to the United States and other Western nations to maintain diplomatic relations after withdrawing. He has defended his decisions, saying the United States long ago achieved its rationale for invading in 2001.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 29, 2021 21:11 UTC