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. At around the same time as the drone strike, Afghan police said a rocket hit a neighborhood near the airport, killing a child. The Taliban described the drone strike and the rocket attack as separate incidents, but residents of the Afghan capital heard only one large blast. Two American military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, called the airstrike successful and said the vehicle carried multiple bombers. The U.S. carried out a drone strike elsewhere in the country on Saturday that it said killed two IS members.

Source: The Nation August 29, 2021 18:00 UTC