An Afghan official confirmed death of three children in a drone strike carried out by the U.S. officials targeting a vehicle carrying Islamic State suicide bombers and was moving towards the Hamid Karzai International Airport while the US Pentagon acknowledged that the United States is well aware of the reports of civilian casualties in Kabul owing to the drone strike carried out by them.
U.S. officials said the vehicle was carrying explosives and that the initial strike on Sunday set off secondary explosions.
According to spokesman of the US Central Command Capt Bill Urban, “We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today,”.
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“We are still assessing the results of this strike, which we know disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport,” he added.
Potential loss of innocent life in strike would be profoundly saddening for US, Urban said.
“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further,” he said.
The American officials also mentioned that the bombers targeted attack Kabul's international airport ahead of a massive airlift awaited before the Tuesday deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
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(With AP/PTI Inputs)
