Aug. 28 (UPI) — The U.S. military conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State-Khorasan Province planner to retaliate for Thursday’s attack, which killed some 170 people.
The “over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation” against the IS-K planner was carried out Friday in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, Capt. Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement.
“Initial indications are that we killed the target,” Urban said in the statement. “We know of no civilian casualties.”
The drone strike comes a day after U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to retaliate against the IS-K for a suicide attack near Hamid Karzai International Airport Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of others. The militant group claimed responsibility for the twin blasts.
A defense official told CNN the drone strike target who was killed was believed to be “associated with potential future attacks at the airport.”
The drone strike also comes amid the last stretch of effort of from the United States and other Western countries to evacuate their citizens and Afghan allies by Tuesday after the Taliban seized control of the country’s capital earlier this month.
“We are still planning on ending this mission at the end of the month,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday regarding the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
Since Aug. 14, the United States has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 109,200 people, according to the White House. On Friday, the military evacuated about 6,800 people on 32 U.S. military flights and 34 coalition flights.