Taliban Killed ISIS Official Mastermind Of Suicide Bombing Afghanistan Airport That Killed 13 US Soldiers

The US military was on guard around Kabul Airport, Afghanistan during the evacuation process. (Wikimedia Commons/Stff. Victor Mancilla)

The Taliban managed to kill an ISIS militant accused of masterminding a suicide bombing at Kabul's international airport, Afghanistan in 2021, killing 13 US troops and more than 170 civilians during the chaotic evacuation following the withdrawal of Washington-led coalition forces.

The bombing took place on August 26, 2021, as US troops tried to help Americans and Afghans escape after the chaos of the Taliban takeover, after 20 years of prolonged war.

"He is an important ISIS-K official directly involved in planning the Abbey Gate operation, and is now no longer able to plan or carry out attacks," White House spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, referring to the Abbey Gate entrance at the airport, where the explosion occurred. April 26.

The government did not name the ISIS-K leader. Kirby also did not specify when the Taliban killed the ISIS-K figure, but called it one of the "high-level leadership loss series" suffered by ISIS-K this year, citing CNN.

Meanwhile, the terrorist who carried out the suicide bombing, Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri, had been released from prison just days earlier when the Taliban took control of the country.

Separately, the father of Chief of Staff Taylor▁Utama, who was killed in the bombing, told CNN he was told by the military Tuesday morning.

"Great, we get rid of other terrorists from the face of this earth. I'm fine with that. But it doesn't free the government or the State Department or Pentagon to take responsibility for what's happening. They haven't stepped in and said we're disrupting this and it won't happen again," he criticized.

"And I personally think it could happen again," he said.

Afghanistan's affiliate from ISIS, known as ISIS Khorasan or ISIS-K, is the enemy of the Taliban. Fighters loyal to ISIS first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in 2014 and then made a breakthrough in other areas.

Since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have tried to crack down on ISIS-K across the country, but have failed to destroy the terror organization.

The Taliban's announcement, a group Washington has fought for nearly two decades, killing one of the terror group's leaders, shows the US's limits on carrying out operations in Afghanistan following the withdrawal.