US launches drone strike against ISIS militants preparing to attack Kabul Airport.

 

People being evacuated from the Kabul airport. CENTCOM. 

The US has launched a drone strike against ISIS militants preparing to attack Kabul Airport. NPR. The strike comes as US forces are still reeling from a massive bombing that killed 170 people along with 12 US Marines and 1 Navy Corpsman. ISIS took credit for the attack and the threats have continued. The strike succeeded in destroying a car bomb, creating a major secondary explosion. The strike likely caused collateral damage as news outlets are reporting several civilian deaths. Around 500 American citizens are still in Afghanistan and the evacuation has until August 31st. 

My Comment:

Looks like we dodged a bullet there in Afghanistan. If the car bomb was a big one, at it sure looks like it was considering the collateral damage, it could have killed hundreds. The bomb killed quite a few people as it is so it's very good that this was intercepted. 

This may have even delayed or disrupted the evacuation plan. It seems as though the evacuation is almost complete despite there being quite a few people still left over. A major car bombing could have damaged the airport and since that's the only way out of Kabul right now...

I am guessing that the Taliban found out about these people and passed that on to the United States. We seem to be working fairly closely with the Taliban these days and they hate ISIS even more than we hate us. Plus, they lost a lot of their own people in the recent bombing. 

The threat is far from over though. I am honestly surprised that ISIS just hasn't tried to shoot it out with the US forces still in Kabul. If they did they probably could kill a few people and further embarrass the United States. But other car bombing or suicide attacks could be launched as well. We got lucky this time but who knows what will happen next.  

As for the evacuation itself it is a mess. I can't believe that the United States is reduced to relying on the Taliban for security and we already lost a lot of people. If we are extremely lucky in the next few days we don't have any other major terror attacks...