US drone strike in Kabul kills 10 civilians
The strike targeting ISKP killed members of two families including a 4-year-old set to leave Afghanistan for the US.
The death of civilians including children in a United States drone strike on Sunday in Kabul has been widely critcised.
The US claimed it was conducting a raid on an Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP, or ISIS-K) target, which killed 10 civilians, ranging from the ages two to 40 years old.
Meanwhile, several rockets have been fired at Kabul’s international airport, a day before the deadline for the US troops to pull out of Afghanistan ends.
The White House, which confirmed the attack, said that evacuation operations at the airport were not interrupted, adding that US President Joe Biden was briefed about the latest rocket attack on Monday morning aimed at the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul.
A US official told the Reuters news agency that some of the rockets were intercepted by a missile defence system.
The ISIL (ISIS) armed group claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Nasher News said on its Telegram channel, adding that six Katyusha rockets were fired at the airport.
The attack comes a day after the US forces launched second drone attack in Afghanistan after Thursday’s suicide bombing at the airport that left nearly 200 people dead. At least 13 US troops were also among those killed.
The US said it had wanted to take out suicide bombers in the latest drone attack in Kabul but media reports say several children were killed in the incident that destroyed a car laden with explosives.
