The White House Tuesday introduced that the Taliban’s authorities forces have efficiently eradicated the Daesh mastermind who orchestrated the extremely damaging suicide bombing at Kabul airport in the course of the tumultuous evacuation of U.S. troops from Afghanistan final 12 months.
The bomber detonated a tool amongst packed crowds on the airport’s perimeter as they tried to flee Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021. The blast killed 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops securing the airport for the traumatic exit.
It was one of many deadliest bombings in Afghanistan. Moreover, it prompted a wave of criticism of President Joe Biden for his choice to tug American forces overseas almost 20 years after the U.S. invasion.
Taliban authorities have since killed the chief of the Daesh cell that deliberate the assault, White House nationwide safety spokesperson John Kirby mentioned.
“He was a key Daesh-K official directly involved in plotting operations like Abbey Gate, and now is no longer able to plot or conduct attacks,” Kirby mentioned, referring to the spot exterior the airport the place the assault occurred.
Daesh-Okay refers to Daesh Khorasan, the group department working in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“He was killed in a Taliban operation,” Kirby added with out giving any particulars.
Taliban authorities officers have to this point not responded to requests for remark.
The pullout, ending on Aug. 30, 2021, noticed Taliban fighters sweep apart Western-trained Afghan forces in simply weeks, forcing the final U.S. troops to mount the determined evacuation from Kabul’s airport.
An unprecedented navy airlift operation managed to get greater than 120,000 individuals overseas in days.
Biden has lengthy defended his choice to go away Afghanistan, which critics have mentioned helped trigger the catastrophic collapse of Afghan forces and paved the best way for the Taliban to return to energy 20 years after their first authorities was toppled.
Nothing “would have changed the trajectory” of the exit and “ultimately, President Biden refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended for the United States long ago,” the White House National Security Council mentioned in a report back to Congress earlier this month.
A current Washington Post report citing leaked Pentagon paperwork mentioned the U.S. believes that Afghanistan is turning into a “staging ground” for the Daesh group because the withdrawal.
In his assertion, Kirby mentioned Tuesday: “We have made clear to the Taliban that it is their responsibility to ensure that they give no safe haven to terrorists, whether al-Qaida or Daesh-K.”
“We have made good on the president’s pledge to establish an over-the-horizon capacity to monitor potential terrorist threats, not only from Afghanistan but elsewhere around the world where that threat has metastasized, as we have done in Somalia and Syria.”
The Taliban and Daesh have lengthy engaged in a turf conflict in Afghanistan. However, consultants have pointed to the jihadist group as probably the most important safety problem for the brand new Afghan authorities going ahead.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers insist they’ve full management of safety within the nation, have largely eradicated any Daesh risk, and that there is no such thing as a al-Qaida presence.
They have nonetheless not acknowledged the assassination of then-al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in June final 12 months by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul.
Source: www.dailysabah.com