On Saturday, the Pentagon announced that it successfully killed two high-profile ISIS-K targets in Afghanistan, just two days after a terrorist attack at Kabul’s airport, killing 13 U.S. service members.
“I can confirm, two high profile targets were killed and one was wounded …We will continue to have the ability to defend ourselves … as needed,” Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor said Saturday.
“The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that’s a good thing,” Pentagon’s spokesperson John Kirby added. “We believe that we hit valid targets — bad guys who can do bad things and can plan bad missions.”
Kirby also added that the U.S. did not notify the Taliban before the strike. The spokesperson also emphasized in the briefing that the withdrawal will be completed as planned, by end of this month.
“We are going to complete this mission by the end of the month.” Kirby said. “We will do this in as safe and orderly way as possible and that includes being able to continue to evacuate right up until the end,” Kirby added.
President Joe Biden also revealed that his national security team reported to him about the two ISIS-K members who were killed by a U.S. drone strike on Friday night.
“We discussed the strike that U.S. forces took last night against the terrorist group ISIS-K in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have.”
