The United States carried out a drone strike against a vehicle threatening the Kabul airport that had been linked to the Afghan Islamic State (IS) affiliate, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
The strike was the second by the US military since an IS suicide bomb just outside the airport on Thursday killed 13 US troops and 170 Afghan civilians.
The attack was claimed by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), a local affiliate of IS that is an enemy of both the West and of the Taliban movement that took over the capital on August 15 after a lightning offensive.
“Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material,” CENTCOM spokesperson Bill Urban said.
In what appeared to be a separate incident on Sunday, a rocket struck a neighbourhood just northwest of the airport, killing a child.
Earlier, the US warned of a “specific, credible threat” near Kabul airport as its forces rush to complete evacuations from Afghanistan by the August 31 deadline and the Taliban prepares to take charge of the key airfield.
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In a security alert, the US embassy in Kabul warned of an attack in specific areas of Kabul airport, including its access gates, as US President Joe Biden told reporters in Washington DC, his commanders informed him another “attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.”
Many Afghan civilians and 13 US soldiers were killed on Thursday in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport.
The airport has been the scene of a massive airlift by US and allied forces evacuating their citizens and Afghans desperate to leave a country since the Islamist Taliban took control two weeks ago.
UK military personnel are seen onboard an aircraft departing Kabul on August 28, 2021 /Reuters
The drone strike took place while remaining civilians waited at the airport to be flown out before the last troops leave, a Western security official told Reuters. A US official told Reuters on Saturday that fewer than 4,000 troops remained.
The Taliban also said the explosion was caused by a US missile strike. "The vehicle and those inside it were killed in the drone strike," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
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They had started their own investigations to determine whether it was really a suicide bomber driving a vehicle loaded with explosives, he said.
The US and allies have taken about 114,400 people - foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans - out of the country in the past two weeks, but tens of thousands who want to go will be left behind.
The airlift - one of the biggest such evacuation operations ever - marked the end of a 20-year Western mission in Afghanistan that began when US-led forces ousted a Taliban government that had provided safe haven for the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
The final chapter came after the US and the Taliban made a deal to end the foreign involvement by August 31. The Western-backed government and Afghan army melted away as Taliban fighters swept across the country, taking control of Kabul on August 15.
A Taliban official told AFP the Islamist group had engineers and technicians ready to take charge of the airport.
Taliban fighters patrol along a street in Kabul on August 29, 2021 /AFP
Honouring the dead
Biden headed on Sunday to Dover Air Force to honour members of the US military killed in Thursday's attack as their remains were returned to the US.
He vowed to go after the perpetrators and on Saturday the States said on Saturday it had killed two ISKP militants in a drone strike. The Taliban condemned that strike, which took place in eastern Nangarhar province which borders Pakistan.
Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Washington expected the Taliban to still allow safe passage for Americans and others to leave after the US military withdrawal is completed.
"The Taliban have both communicated privately and publicly that they will allow for safe passage," Jake Sullivan said in a CBS TV interview.
The Afghan government's collapse leaves an administrative vacuum that has led to fears of an economic crisis and widespread hunger.
Prices for commodities like flour, oil and rice are rapidly rising and the currency is plunging, with money changers across the border in Pakistan already refusing to accept the afghani.
On Saturday, officials ordered banks to re-open and imposed a limit on withdrawals of $200 or 20,000 afghani. Long queues forming outside bank branches of people trying to get money out.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said the difficulties will subside quickly once the new administration is up and running.
But with its economy shattered by decades of war, Afghanistan is now facing the end of billions of dollars in foreign aid poured in by Western donors.
Mujahid said the Taliban would announce a full cabinet in the coming days. It had appointed governors and police chiefs in all but one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, he said.
The Taliban also appealed to the US and other Western nations to maintain diplomatic relations after withdrawing. Britain said that should happen only if the Taliban allow safe passage for those who want to leave and respect human rights.
The Taliban's 1996-2001 rule was marked by a harsh version of sharia, Islamic law, with many political rights and basic freedoms curtailed and women severely oppressed.
Afghanistan was also a hub for anti-Western militants, and Washington, London and others fear it might become so again.
Biden has faced criticism at home and abroad for the chaos surrounding the final weeks of US military presence in Afghanistan. He has defended his decisions, saying the US long ago achieved its rationale for invading in 2001.
Britain's last military flight left Kabul on Saturday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would not have wished to leave Afghanistan in such a manner.
