US destroys explosive laden vehicle in Kabul, civilians feared dead

Hours after it conducted drone strikes to destroy an “explosive laded vehicle” headed towards the Kabul international airport on Sunday, the Pentagon said it is aware of reports of civilian casualties in the strike.

According to Afghan officials, three children were killed in the drone strike by the US near the Hamid Karzai International Airport.

“We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today,” Capt Bill Urban, spokesman of the US Central Command, said.

“We are still assessing the results of this strike, which we know disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport,” he added.

Stating that any loss of innocent life is a cause of disappointment for the US, Urban said a probe is underway to determine exactly what happened on ground zero. “We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further,’ he said.

Earlier on Sunday, the US military confirmed that its forces conducted a “self-defence unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike” on an explosive-laden vehicle on in Kabul and eliminated an ISIS-K threat to the Hamid Karzai International airport.

“We are confident we successfully hit the target,” Urban said.

He added that significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.

“The US is assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though it has no indications at this time. We remain vigilant for potential future threats,” Urban had said in a statement.

A Taliban spokesman earlier said in a message to journalists in Afghanistan that the US strike targeted a suicide bomber as he drove a vehicle loaded with explosives.

Sunday’s drone strike was the second by the US since the twin blasts at the Kabul airport that killed 169 Afghans and 13 American soldiers. On Saturday, the US military said that it carried out a drone strike in Afghanistan, killing two high-profile “planners and facilitators” of the Islamic State’s Afghanistan affiliate, dubbed Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, which had claimed responsibility for the attack at the Kabul airport on Thursday.

“Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, and one was wounded. And we know of zero civilian casualties,” Maj Gen Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for Regional Operations, told reporters on Saturday.

President Joe Biden had vowed to “hunt” down the terrorists and make them “pay” for the Kabul airport attack and ordered his commanders to develop plans to strike back at them. “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm notice, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command,” Biden said in at the White House on Thursday.

(With inputs from agencies)