The U.S. military’s mission in Afghanistan has not changed despite the dual bombings that claimed the lives of 12 soldiers and dozens of others.
Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of the U.S. Central Command, said the attack, which he attributed to ISIS-K, “will not deter us from accomplishing our mission.”
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“We continue to focus on the protection of our forces and the evacuees as the evacuation continues,” he told reporters during a Thursday afternoon briefing. “Let me be clear, while we are saddened by the loss of life, both U.S. and Afghans, we continue to execute the mission.”
He said 12 U.S. service members were killed, and 15 more were wounded. McKenzie did not mention specific numbers for Taliban troops or Afghan evacuees who were killed or injured.
“The threat from ISIS is extremely real. We’ve been talking about this for several days. We saw it actually manifest itself here in the last few hours with an actual attack. We believe it is their desire to continue those attacks. We expect those attacks to continue, and we’re doing everything to be prepared for those attacks,” the commander said. “If we can find who’s associated with this, we will go after them.”
McKenzie said the first explosion was a suicide bomber who approached the airport’s Abbey Gate, describing the interactions at the gates as a face-to-face meeting.
U.S. and coalition forces have evacuated more than 100,000 people from Kabul who were at risk under the Taliban’s rule. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced 4,500 U.S. citizens in Afghanistan had been among those evacuees on Wednesday, adding approximately 1,500 remained in the Taliban-controlled country.
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The Taliban have worked with the United States at Hamid Karzai International Airport, acting as perimeter security.
McKenzie said he didn’t believe they were connected to the bombings because they and the U.S. have the same end goal: for all U.S. troops to be out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31.
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President Joe Biden set Tuesday as the deadline for withdrawing all troops and has hung firmly to it, even as pressures to extend the marker increased.
