The Pentagon said that two “high-profile” Islamic State militants were killed and one was wounded in Friday night’s drone strike in Nangahar Province as part of the American retaliation for the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul that killed scores of people, including 13 American service members.
Defense Department officials said one of the Islamic State drone targets was a “planner,” and one was a “facilitator.” Both, they said, were involved in planning attacks against Americans, although the officials declined to say whether they were involved specifically in the Kabul airport attack.
There remains a threat to American troops and civilians at the Kabul airport, officials said, making the ongoing evacuation effort perilous.
On Friday, American troops evacuated 4,000 people from the airport on American military planes, and helped to evacuate another 2,800 on other aircraft. Maj. General Hank Taylor, Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, said that 117,000 people, most of them Afghans, have been evacuated since Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15.