Kabul's new war: 5 rockets fired on Kabul airport after US drone strike

Multiple rockets were fired at Kabul’s international airport Sunday night but were intercepted by a missile defense system, a US official stated.

The U.S official said as many as 5 rockets were fired, though it was not clear if all were brought down by the defense system.

No casualties among US troops and civilians have been reported so far, according to Reuters.

The rockets reportedly struck Kabul’s Salim Karwan neighborhood. The explosion was immediately followed by gunfire from unknown sources.

A civilian vehicle was apparently used as an improvised platform in the rocket attack aimed at the Kabul airport on Monday.

Taliban fighters had initially cordoned off the area, telling bystanders the situation remained dangerous, though they later allowed journalists on the street.

A US official stated that the rockets were likely launched by ISIS-K, but cautioned it was too early to know for sure.

US President Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

Biden was informed “operations continue uninterrupted” at the airport as the August 31 deadline to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan approaches, according to his press secretary.

The rocket firing comes within 24 hours of a drone strike carried out by the US military killing two Islamic State militants. The drone strike with a Hellfire missile was aimed at an explosives-laden vehicle posing an imminent threat to the Kabul International Airport where tens of thousands are in the process of fleeing war-torn Afghanistan.

At least three children were killed and several were injured in the strike.
US Central Command Navy Captain Bill Urban confirmed that the US was aware of the casualties among civilians. “We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life,” he said.

The drone strike, Navy Captain Urban said, was in order to disrupt a potential attack on Kabul airport.

The attack was prompted after US intelligence saw some people loading explosives into the trunk of the vehicle in a compound between two buildings.

An initial explosion by the missile was followed by a much larger explosion due to the thick storage of explosives in the vehicle, which may have caused civilian deaths, according to US officials.

The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for the attacks outside the Kabul airport when two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport on Thursday, killing at least 60 Afghans and 12 US troops, Afghan and US officials said.

The IS branch, known as The Islamic State-Khorasan Province after a name for the region from antiquity, said in its statement of responsibility that it targeted American troops and their Afghan allies.