The U.S announces the killing of the "mastermind" of a suicide attack at Kabul airport by the Taliba

The White House announced on Tuesday that the Taliban had killed an Islamic State militant who was the "mastermind" behind a suicide attack at Kabul International Airport on August 26, 2021 that killed 13 American soldiers and 170 Afghan civilians during American evacuations from the country. The attack then exacerbated the US sense of defeat after a 20-year war.

US officials said the movementThe TalibanIt killed a militant affiliated with the "Islamic State" organization, who was the "mastermind" behind a suicide attack at Kabul International Airport in 2021 that killed 13 American soldiers and dozens of civilians, in the midst of American evacuations from the country.

The bombing took place on August 26, 2021, while US forces were trying to help American citizens and Afghans flee the country, following the Taliban's takeover of power there.

The attacker, who belongs to the "Islamic State" organization, blew himself up among large crowds of people in the vicinity of the airport while they were trying to flee from Afghanistan on August 26, 2021. The explosion killed 170 Afghans and 13 American soldiers who were securing the airport during the withdrawal process. The bombing was one of the most violent in Afghanistan in recent years, and sparked a wave of criticism of President Joe Biden, against the backdrop of his decision to withdraw his country's forces nearly 20 years after the US invasion. The attack exacerbated the US sense of defeat after a 20-year war.

White House spokesman John Kirby said, in a statement Tuesday: "He was an important official in the Islamic Khorasan Province organization, and was directly involved in planning operations such as the Abi Gate operation. He can no longer plan attacks," referring to the Abi Gate at Kabul Airport, where the explosion occurred. . The spokesman did not name the official.

starting point

During the withdrawal process that ended on August 30, 2021, Taliban fighters took control of the Western-trained Afghan forces within weeks, prompting the remaining American forces to evacuate from Kabul airport. An unprecedented military airlift managed to remove more than 120,000 people from the country in a matter of days.

Biden has frequently defended his decision to exit Afghanistan, which critics say helped cause the catastrophic collapse of Afghan forces and paved the way for the Taliban's return to power two decades after toppling its first government.

The White House National Security Council said in a report to Congress earlier this month that nothing "would have changed the course" of exit and "ultimately, President Biden refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended for them," said a recent report in the Journal. The Washington Post, citing leaked Pentagon documents, says the United States believes that since the withdrawal, Afghanistan has become a "launching point" for the "Islamic State."

"We have made it clear to the Taliban that it is their responsibility to ensure that terrorists, whether they are from al-Qaeda or from the 'Islamic State-Khorasan Province', do not have a safe haven," Kirby said in his statement on Tuesday. "We have fulfilled the president's pledge to establish a capability to detect potential terrorist threats, not only from Afghanistan but from other places around the world where this threat has spread, similar to what we have done in Somalia and Syria," he added.

And the Islamic Khorasan Province is the branch of the "Islamic State" organization in Afghanistan, and it is hostile to the Taliban movement. Fighters loyal to the "Islamic State" organization appeared in eastern Afghanistan for the first time in 2014, and their influence later spread to other regions.

Taliban forces and the "Islamic State" organization are engaged in battles in parts of Afghanistan, and observers point to the jihadist group as the biggest security challenge to the new Afghan government in the future.

Taliban leaders assert that they fully control security in the country and largely eliminate any threat to the "Islamic State" organization, and that al-Qaeda has no presence in the country. However, they have not yet confirmed the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in June last year in a US drone strike in Kabul