U.S. airstrikes hit airport-targeted suicide bombers

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Kabul-Taliban, Afghanistan, said US airstrikes targeted suicide bombers in vehicles attempting to attack Kabul International Airport on Sunday while US troops were evacuating to Kabul International Airport.

There were few initial details about the incident, and no rocket struck a neighborhood just northwest of the airport and killed a child. The two strikes initially looked like separate incidents, but there was still a lack of information on both.

The attack rewinds the historic airlift, which has evacuated tens of thousands of people from Kabul’s international airport, many scenes of turmoil involving the Afghan capital since the Taliban occupied it more than two weeks ago. Sometimes it happens. The Taliban strengthened security around the airfield as Britain completed its evacuation flight on Saturday after a suicide bombing by an Islamic state affiliate that killed more than 180 people.

U.S. military freighters continued to run to the airport on Sunday, ahead of the Tuesday deadline previously set by President Joe Biden to withdraw all troops from the longest war in the United States. However, the remaining Afghans in the country are worried that the Taliban will return to its former oppressive rule. This was fueled by the recent shootings of domestic folk singers by armed groups.

Zabihullah Mujahid said in a message to journalists that the strike targeted the bomber while it was driving a vehicle loaded with explosives. Mujahid provided some other details.

US military officials were not immediately asked for comment.

Meanwhile, rocket attacks struck the Khuwja Bughra district of Kabul, said Rashid, Kabul police chief. A video obtained by the Associated Press in the aftermath of the attack showed smoke rising from a building about 0.5 miles from the airport.

No group immediately claimed an attack, but militants have launched rockets in the past.

Meanwhile, a family of folk singers in northern Kabul say the Taliban killed him.

The Fawad Andarabi shooting took place in his named Andarabi Valley, a region of Baghlan, 60 miles north of Kabul. Since the Taliban takeover, the valley has been turbulent and some areas of the region have been placed under the control of militias who oppose the Taliban’s rule. The Taliban subsequently stated that they had regained these areas, but Panjshir, which borders the Hindu Kush Mountains, is the only of the 34 states in Afghanistan that are not under its control.

The Taliban had previously come to Andalabi’s house and searched for it over a cup of tea with a musician, his son Javad Andalabi told AP. But something changed on Friday.

“He was an innocent singer who was just entertaining people,” his son said. “They shot his head on the farm.”

His son said he wanted justice and the local Taliban council had promised to punish his father’s murderer.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AP that armed groups would investigate the case, but did not provide any other details regarding the killing.

Andarabi played the bowed string instrument Gicak and sang traditional songs about his hometown, his people, and the whole of Afghanistan. Online video While he was singing, he sat on the floor covering with the mountains of the house surrounding him and showed him in a performance.

“There is no country in the world like my hometown, a proud country,” he sang. “Our beautiful valley, home of great-grandparents.”

Karima Bennoune, a UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, wrote on Twitter that she had “serious concerns” about the killing of Andarabi.

“We call on the government to demand the Taliban to respect the #human rights of #artists,” she wrote.

Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Caramard also accused the killing.

“There is plenty of evidence that the 2021 Taliban is the same as the 2001 intolerant, violent and oppressive Taliban,” she wrote on Twitter. “Twenty years later. Nothing has changed in that respect.”

Meanwhile, on Sunday, private banks across Afghanistan reopened. However, they limited withdrawals to less than $ 200 a day.

Some people complain that they still don’t have access to money, but civil servants say they haven’t been paid for the past four months. Afghani trades for around $ 90.5 to $ 1 and continues to depreciate as billions of dollars in national reserves remain frozen abroad.

Kathy Gannon, Tamim Akgar, John Gambrel

Associated Press



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