As the United States continues to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies out of Kabul Monday, the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate ISIS-K claimed responsibility for rocket fire targeting the city’s airport. The video above shows the scene in Kabul after the rocket fire, as well as Pentagon officials discussing evacuation efforts.
The five rockets missed the Hamid Karzai International Airport instead hitting a nearby neighborhood. There were no immediate report of casualties, and the Kabul rocket fire did not halt the evacuation process.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chief of Staff Ron Klain briefed the President on the rocket attack according to a statement by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. She stated “The President was informed that operations continue uninterrupted at HKIA, and has reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritize doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground.”
The rocket fire comes just days after a suicide bombing at one of the airport gates killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.
The U.S. retaliated twice. The second drone strike on Sunday hit a vehicle carrying multiple Islamic State suicide bombers. A senior U.S. official said there was an initial explosion caused by the drone missile, followed by a much larger fireball, believed to be the result of the substantial amount of explosives inside the vehicle. The U.S. believes that two Islamic State group individuals who were targeted were killed.
In a statement, U.S. Central Command said it is looking into the reports of civilian casualties that may have been caused by the secondary explosions. An Afghan official said three children were killed in the strike.
These recent attacks ratcheted up the pressure on the U.S. to get the remaining Americans and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan. There is also pressure from President Joe Biden’s deadline to get everyone out by Tuesday. “Obviously we are reaching the end of our prescribed mission,” Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff said.
There are about 300 U.S. citizens remaining in Afghanistan who want to leave before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline. Roughly 280 others have told the State Department they are Americans, but they either plan to stay in the country or are undecided.
On Monday morning, the White House said about 1,200 people were evacuated on 26 U.S. military flights and two allied flight in the last 24 hours aboard. According to the Pentagon about 122,000 people have been evacuated so far, making it the largest airlift evacuation to date.