US officials said on Tuesday that the Taliban has killed an ISIS-K leader that was responsible for the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport during the US evacuation from Afghanistan, which killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US troops.
“Experts in the government are at high confidence that this individual … was indeed the key individual responsible” for the attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 26, 2021, a Biden administration official told CBS News.
US officials described the ISIS-K member as the “mastermind” of the attack but said the White House won’t release the name. Officials said the US government was not involved in the Taliban operation, which took place in recent weeks.
The US was not notified by the Taliban about the operation, and the officials said they came to the conclusion through intelligence gathering. The Taliban is a sworn enemy of ISIS-K and has been fighting the group both before and after the US withdrawal.
The Washington Post reported in 2020 that the US was providing the Taliban with air support against ISIS-K during battles in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar Province while still fighting the war against the Taliban elsewhere in the country.
A few days after the Kabul airport bombing, the US launched a drone strike in the Afghan capital on August 29, 2021, that killed 10 civilians, including seven children. The Pentagon initially claimed the strike killed ISIS-K members and prevented another airport attack but later admitted it only killed civilians.
Documents obtained by The New York Times revealed the military was aware almost immediately that civilians were killed in the strike but lied about it to the media. The Pentagon investigated the drone strike and decided nobody should be punished for the slaughter.
Even Taliban has to clean up the western sponsored garbage left behind
He was their friend until he wasn’t.
Just like he was with us before he was their friend……
What a total clusterfu….kerfuffle ….
“Taliban kills another U.S. asset”. My headline.
They were always willing, even set the price for turning over bin Laden. It was the US that wanted war. Bush/Cheney did not really want to “get bin Laden” and did not do so even when they could have. They wanted the war that they excused that way.
Why now?
What messages are they trying to send and to who?
Perhaps once we know who told us this it might help?
If we “overheard” this surreptitiously then it may be more of a hit on ISIS by someone upset with them then an “approach” by the Taliban who would tell us the news if they wanted something.
But ….it could be the former and just an added bonus to make us happy because we are always happy it seems when blood is involved, like so many are (even those two other parties at this dance seem to like to resolve things that way too hense the old school death instead of retirement with a watch)