Tag: ISIS

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Biden vows to complete Afghanistan evacuation, search out ISIS leaders after Kabul assault

Biden vows to finish Afghanistan evacuation, hunt down ISIS leaders after Kabul attack

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden promised Thursday to complete the evacuation of Americans and their allies from Afghanistan after a deadly terrorist attack near Kabul airport killed more than a dozen US soldiers and many Afghans.

“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation,” said Biden from the White House. “We’re going to save Americans, we’re going to get our Afghan allies, and the mission will go on. America won’t be intimidated.”

The US has approximately 5,400 military personnel helping with the evacuation effort in Kabul.

The US Central Command confirmed Thursday evening that the death toll had risen to 13 US soldiers and 18 injured after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive.

U.S. Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said a number of Afghan civilians were also killed in the explosion, but he was unable to provide an exact number. He added that according to the current assessment of the US military, the bomber was an IS fighter.

ISIS has admitted to the attack.

Addressing those responsible for the attack, the president said, “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”

“I will defend our interests and our people with every measure I command,” said Biden.

“I have also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to attack ISIS-K facilities, commanders and facilities, indicating that the US had clues about the ISIS leaders who ordered the attack.

“We have reason to believe we know who they are,” Biden said, although he found the US wasn’t sure. “And we’ll find ways of our choosing, without major military operations, to get them wherever they are.”

The president warned on Tuesday that staying in Afghanistan longer than planned poses serious risks to foreign troops and civilians. He said ISIS-K, the Afghanistan-based branch of the terrorist group, posed a growing threat to the airport.

“I have repeatedly said that this mission is extraordinarily dangerous, and that is why I was so determined to limit the duration of this mission,” Biden repeated on Thursday.

Read more about developments in Afghanistan:

Earlier this week, the president told the leaders of the G-7, NATO, the United Nations and the European Union that the United States would withdraw its military from Afghanistan by the end of the month.

In the past 24 hours, Western forces evacuated 13,400 people from Kabul on 91 military cargo plane flights. Since the mass evacuations began on August 14, around 95,700 people have been flown out of Afghanistan.

About 101,300 people have been evacuated since the end of July, including about 5,000 US citizens and their families.

A State Department spokesman said Thursday that the US is now in contact with the 1,000 or so Americans believed to be still in Afghanistan.

“The vast majority – over two-thirds – have told us they are taking steps to exit,” added the spokesman.

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Politics

ISIS Poses ‘Acute’ Menace to U.S. Evacuation Efforts in Kabul, Sullivan Says

ISIS Poses ‘Acute’ Threat to U.S. Evacuation Efforts in Kabul, Sullivan Says

A deadly attack on American and Afghan civilians would be a disaster not only for the US but also for the Taliban, who want to consolidate control over Kabul. The Taliban and the Islamic State were enemies and fought for control of parts of the country on the battlefield.

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

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Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodged American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to rule, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are.

What is happening to the women of Afghanistan? When the Taliban was last in power, they banned women and girls from most jobs or from going to school. Afghan women have gained a lot since the Taliban was overthrown, but now they fear that they are losing ground. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are indications that they have begun to reintroduce the old order in at least some areas.

Western counter-terrorism analysts say a high-profile attack by ISIS during the evacuation would most likely add to the group’s dwindling wealth, recruitment and prestige.

A June United Nations report found that “Islamic State’s territorial losses have affected the group’s ability to recruit and generate new funds.”

Although the ISIS affiliate was believed to still have 1,500 to 2,200 fighters in small areas of Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, the report said, “It has been forced to decentralize and consists mainly of cells and small groups across the country that act autonomously ”. while they share the same ideology. “

While the group suffered military setbacks from the summer of 2018, the report concluded that since June 2020, under its ambitious new leader Shahab al-Muhajir, the subsidiary has “remained active and dangerous” and is trying to increase its ranks with disaffected Taliban fighters and other militants.

“Given that ISIS-K and the Taliban are enemies, it will be a challenge for ISIS-K,” said Clarke. “Nevertheless, the Taliban now have their hands full governing, which will consume a considerable amount of bandwidth within the organization.”

Nathan Sales, the State Department’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator in the Trump administration, said on Sunday that if the ISIS affiliate were able to attack the Kabul airport, “it suggests that Afghanistan may be after the departure of the USA will be a permissive environment for all types of terrorist groups. even those who are hostile to the Taliban. “

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Politics

U.S. Airstrike Kills High ISIS Chief in Iraq

U.S. Airstrike Kills Top ISIS Leader in Iraq

BAGDAD – American air strikes on a joint mission with Iraqi forces killed the leading Islamic head of state in Iraq. This attack aimed to contain the group’s resurgence and seek retaliation for a deadly suicide attack in Baghdad last week.

ISIS commander Jabbar Salman Ali Farhan al-Issawi, known as Abu Yasser, was killed on Wednesday near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, the American-led military coalition and Iraqi officials said on Friday.

The Islamic State no longer owns any territory in Iraq, but has continued to carry out deadly attacks. The question of what kind of violence is required to keep the group at bay has been at the center of the US and Iraqi negotiations to reduce the number of US troops in Iraq, and shows America’s role in the raid this week that Iraq continues to rely on the US US military.

A coalition spokesman, Colonel Wayne Marotto, described the death of Mr. al-Issawi as “a severe blow” to the efforts of the Islamic State to regroup.

Mr al-Issawi coordinated the group’s operations in Iraq, anti-terrorism experts said. Colonel Marotto said he was responsible for developing and disseminating guidance to ISIS fighters and for expanding ISIS presence in Iraq.

He said nine other ISIS fighters were killed in the operation.

Colonel Marotto said Iraqi counter-terrorism forces were leading the operation with the support of the coalition’s air, intelligence and surveillance coalition.

The American-led coalition has a policy not to comment on which countries are carrying out certain air strikes. But senior Iraqi security officials, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to post the information, said US planes carried out the strikes.

Iraqi officials said the attack on an underground hideout avenged the deaths of 32 Iraqis killed in the ISIS attack on a market in Baghdad last week. More than 100 others were injured in the attack, the deadliest in Baghdad in four years.

ISIS took responsibility for the bombing, saying it was targeting Shiite Muslims and Iraqi security forces.

“We have promised and fulfilled,” Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted about the operation in which Mr al-Issawi was killed. “I gave my word to persecute Daesh terrorists. We gave them a thundering answer,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Mr. al-Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief, also replaced several heads of intelligence and security operations following the ISIS attack, saying it was partly to blame for lax security and intelligence errors.

Mr. al-Kadhimi took office last year and pledged to strengthen security, fight corruption and implement government reforms.

Iraqi and American officials said the operation that killed Mr. al-Issawi lasted months as they approached lower-level ISIS leaders in mountain hideouts near Kirkuk and received information on what appears to be a new center of ISIS operations collected there.

Mr. al-Issawi, originally from the Iraqi city of Fallujah, returned to Iraq six months ago across the porous border to the Kurdish-controlled sector of eastern Syria.

In addition to the air strikes, the operation also included raids by Iraqi counter-terrorism forces in ISIS guest houses, according to an Iraqi military statement.

Although the last major ISIS attack in Baghdad took place two years ago, the group conducts regular operations in provinces further north.

“The information showed that this man was an active coordinator of Islamic state operations,” said Michael Knights, Jill and Jay Bernstein Fellow of Security and Military Affairs at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Iraq is probably still the largest operating environment for ISIS, which effectively means he is the country manager of the largest subsidiary.”

At its height, ISIS controlled almost a third of Iraqi territory and all of Syria province after declaring a caliphate with Mosul as its capital in 2014. American-backed, Kurdish-led troops drove the group out of the last territory they owned two years ago, near the city of Baghuz in Syria.

The assassination of Mr. al-Issawi “shows the Iraqi people that the government is capable of effective action,” said Mr. Knights.

Crucial American aid in the raid came amid increasing political pressure from pro-Iranian groups in Iraq to evict US troops from the country.

After the recent cuts by the Trump administration, the United States still has about 2,500 soldiers on three Iraqi military bases. While Iraqi capabilities in the fight against ISIS have improved, the country still relies on intelligence, surveillance equipment and air support from the US-led coalition.

“From an operational standpoint, it is important that ISIS is disrupted as much as possible, but it obviously needs a lot of follow-up,” said Sajad Jiyad, an Iraq-based employee with the Century Foundation. “ISIS has shown that it is quite resilient and can show up in small cells, especially in rural areas and difficult terrain, and also targets areas that are very difficult for Iraqi forces to monitor.”

Mr Jiyad said he believed that helping US forces with operations against ISIS would gain goodwill. But he said the US drone attack that killed a senior Iraqi security officer along with Iranian commander General Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad last year had more weight in strengthening opposition to American forces in Iraq.

Following the drone attack, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution calling on the government to evict American forces from Iraq. This step was not implemented.

“The presence of US forces is part of a larger problem unrelated to Daesh,” Jiyad said. “These kinds of things can’t just be washed away. The US has been helpful against ISIS.”

Eric Schmitt contributed to coverage from Washington.