US Attack Kills Nine Members of Afghan Family, Including Six Children

By Staff, Agencies

An initial fatality figure emerged from what was earlier described as a preemptive US drone strike in the vicinity of the Kabul International Airport, showing that the attack killed nine members of an Afghan family, including six children.

“A brother of one of those killed” gave the figure to a local journalist working with CNN, the network reported on Sunday.

The US Central Command claimed that the UAV attack had allegedly targeted a potential attacker with Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group].

A day earlier, the United States struck a target in the western Afghan province of Nangarhar, similarly alleging that it took aim at a Daesh target.

Trying to justify such assaults, Washington has been citing a Thursday bombing of the airport’s proximity by the terrorists that reportedly killed 13 American “service members” and at least 175 other people.

US President Joe Biden vowed that no such strike would be the American military’s last, although, he has pledged a complete withdrawal from the Central Asian country following some two years of occupation.

“Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours. I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritize force protection,” Biden said in a statement.

The Taliban group that has taken control of Afghanistan since earlier in August has, however, denounced such strikes as violations of the country’s sovereignty.

Concerning the latest drone attack, Bilal Kareemi, a Taliban spokesperson, told CNN that it was "not right to conduct operations on others' soil" and that the US should have informed the Taliban. "Whenever the US conducts such operations, we condemn them," he said.

The group has also announced that it sought to take control of the airport shortly, raising the prospect of fresh clashes with the US forces.