NEW YORK, Apr 26 (APP): The Taliban have killed the suspected ISIS-K mastermind behind the 2021 bombing at the airport in Kabul that left 13 US troops and 170 Afghans dead, according to American media reports, citing officials.
The ISIS-K leader was killed weeks ago but it took time to confirm his death, US officials told CBS News.
His name has not been released.
US officials said they had determined through intelligence gathering and monitoring of the region that the leader had died, though they did not provide further details on how they had learned that he was responsible for the bombing.
“Experts in the government are at high confidence that this individual… was indeed the key individual responsible,” a senior US official told CBS News.
According to a report in the New York Times, the US learned of the leader’s death in early April. It is unclear whether he was targeted by the Taliban or if he was killed during ongoing fighting between the IS and the Taliban, the newspaper reported.
On Monday, the US began notifying families of the soldiers killed about the death of the ISIS-K leader.
The blast came hours after Western governments warned their citizens to stay away from Kabul International Airport, because of an imminent threat of an attack by IS-K, the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State group.
It happened around at the Abbey Gate to the airport, when a suicide bomber walked into the middle of families waiting outside the gate.
Huge crowds had been gathering in the area, hoping to be accepted on to an evacuation flight as US troops pulled out of Afghanistan.
The August 2021 pull-out of US troops from Afghanistan marked the end of America’s longest war.
It led to the collapse of the Afghan government and military, which the US government had supported for two decades. It also led to the return of power to the Taliban.
The Biden administration was criticiszd both at home and abroad in the aftermath of the pull-out.