- Biden says he has ordered for a retaliatory strike to be carried out on ISIS-K.
- He said on Thursday that military commanders have been tasked to develop plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership, and facilities.
- He said that the US will respond with ‘force and precision” at its own time.
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President Joe Biden said on August 26 that he had ordered US military commanders to develop plans for a retaliatory strike against ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s Afghanistan affiliate that claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide bomb attacks near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The US military will be developing operational plans to “strike ISIS-K assets, leadership, and facilities,” said the president on Thursday, following a string of suicide bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 13 American military members and dozens of Afghans looking to seek refuge on airlifts out of the country.
“We will respond with force and precision in our time, at a place we choose, in a manner of our choosing,” Biden said in his address.
“These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans. We will get our Afghan allies out. And our mission will go on,” the president added on Thursday, assuring Americans that US citizens will continue to be evacuated. “America will not be intimidated.”
In the same speech, Biden vowed to defend the interests of Americans with “every measure” of his command.
“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said.
The New York Times noted that Biden’s remarks from the East Wing echoed former President George Bush’s comments in the days following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing,” said Bush back in 2001.
Witnesses in Kabul have described horrific sights of people being blown up before their eyes and dying in their arms.
Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of the US Central Command, also warned on Thursday that the threat from ISIS is “extremely real” and that attacks are likely to continue.
The death toll from the Kabul bombing continues to climb, and the current tally at press time stands at more than 60 deaths and 140 injuries. The AP and Reuters have reported that at least 60 Afghans were killed in the suicide blasts, and the New York Times is reporting that 120 to 140 people were injured.
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