Joe Biden
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 26, 2021
U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate against the Islamic State group after suicide bombings outside Kabul’s airport killed at least 12 U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans, with many more wounded, just days before an August 31 deadline for foreign troops to leave Afghanistan.
“To those who carried out this attack… we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down, and make you pay,” Biden said in televised comments from the White House on August 26.
Biden said U.S. forces would target Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), the extremist group’s Afghanistan affiliate which claimed credit for the attack, at a time and place of its choosing. ISIS-K is a rival of the Taliban.
The United States has been coordinating evacuations with the Taliban since the insurgency captured Kabul earlier this month.
The terrorist attack will not deter the United States from its mission to evacuate thousands of American citizens, allies, and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan, Biden said.
“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation,” Biden said, adding that more than 100,000 people had been taken out of the country in the past 12 days.
Biden reaffirmed an August 31 deadline for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan, saying there was enough time in the next several days to wrap up evacuations. About 1,000 U.S. citizens are estimated to still be in the country.
He described the U.S. military members who died as “heroes who’ve been in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.”
“They are part of an airlift and evacuation effort, unlike any seen in history,” Biden said.
The administration has been widely blamed for a chaotic evacuation after the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the Taliban’s takeover of the country. But the president has repeatedly defended the decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war.
The U.S. death toll from the attacks made it the deadliest single incident for American forces in Afghanistan in a decade and one of the deadliest of the entire 20-year war. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans.
Earlier, General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, said the 12 service members were killed and 15 others were wounded after two suicide bombs struck near the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport, where crowds of Afghans have gathered in recent days hoping to get on a flight out of the country. Gunmen also opened fire on civilians and military forces.
There also was an attack at or near the Baron Hotel near that gate.
McKenzie said U.S. forces were coordinating security with the Taliban and planned to continue evacuations despite the threat of further attacks.
Several Western allies have already finished their airlift operations ahead of the U.S. withdrawal on August 31, including Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that one of its suicide bombers had targeted “translators and collaborators with the American army.”
The United States and its allies on August 25 had urged civilians to stay away from the airport because of intelligence suggesting ISIS-K was planning an attack.
With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Related