The Pentagon announced Saturday that the U.S. drone strike on ISIS-K killed two "high-profile" targets from the terrorist group and injured a third.
The attack is the first reported response to Thursday's deadly suicide bombing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for regional operations, said in a press briefing that the two targets were "planners and facilitators."
He said that additional information on the targets' roles in ISIS or their involvement in the Thursday bombing, which killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans, would not be provided. ISIS-K is claiming responsibility for the attack.
Taylor added that officials are not aware of any civilian casualties.
U.S. Central Command previously believed only a single target, an "ISIS-K planner," had been killed from the strike.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, however, said during Saturday's briefing that "as the assessments and information flowed over time, we were able to recognize that another was killed as well, and one wounded."
Kirby also acknowledged that the strike was both part of ongoing anti-terrorism efforts and a retaliation to Thursday's bombing.
"We have the ability to conduct over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities," Kirby said before admitting that it is "not a coincidence" that it occurred just days after the attack by the Kabul airport.
President Biden's national security team has warned that additional terrorist attacks are "likely" amid the U.S. military's continued efforts to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies from Afghanistan.
Kirby pointed out Saturday that ISIS-K had "lost some capability to plan and to conduct missions" after the U.S. drone attack but said that the security threat is still being actively monitored by U.S. officials.
"The threat stream is still active, still dynamic," he said. "We're still laser focused on that, and force protection, and we aren't thinking for a minute that what happened yesterday gets us in the clear, not a minute."
The Pentagon also told reporters Friday that U.S. troops have begun a gradual departure from the Kabul airport but would not provide details on how many service members remain in the region.
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