“Taliban Kills ISIS-K Leader Behind Kabul Airport Suicide Bombings, US Confirms”

The Taliban have killed the IS leader who launched a series of suicide bombings at Kabul airport in August 2021. That’s what US officials say to, among others The New York Times in CBS News. The leader of the terror movement was said to have been killed in recent weeks, but it took some time to confirm his death. His name has not been released.

The August 26, 2021 airport bombings came shortly after the Taliban’s meteoric takeover of Kabul. At the time, countless residents hurriedly tried to reach the airport to get one of the scarce places on board an evacuation flight.

There had been signs for several days that an attack was imminent. When that fear came true, it certainly cost 170 burgers and thirteen American servicemen. It soon became clear that the perpetrators were members of the terrorist group IS.

Earlier this month, intelligence analysts determined that the mastermind behind the attacks had been killed in a Taliban operation in Afghanistan, the US officials said. It is not clear if he was the target of that operation or if he was simply killed in fighting between the Taliban and IS fighters.

“Experts within the government have a high degree of certainty that this person was indeed the one responsible for this,” a source told CBS News. More details have not been disclosed. Defense in the US has informed the relatives of the thirteen killed American soldiers of the news.

An IS branch is active in Afghanistan called IS-Khorasan, or IS-K. Since the US left Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has regularly engaged in combat with the terror group.