ISIS-K claims rocket attack on Kabul airport

US soldiers stand on the tarmac as an US Air Force aircraft (L) prepares for take off from the airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. Rockets were fired at Kabul’s airport on August 30 where US troops were racing to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan and evacuate allies under the threat of Islamic State group attacks. Aamir QURESHI / AFP

(AFP) — The Islamic State-Khorasan group claimed a rocket attack Monday on the airport in Afghanistan’s capital.

“The soldiers of the caliphate targeted Kabul’s international airport with six… rockets,” the group said in a statement.

The rockets fell as US troops were racing to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan and evacuate allies.

President Joe Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close his nation’s longest military conflict, which began in retaliation for the September 11 attacks.

The Islamic State-Khorasan group, rivals of the Taliban, pose the biggest threat to the withdrawal, after carrying out a suicide bombing outside the airport late last week that claimed more than 100 lives, including those of 13 US troops.

The United States meanwhile said it had carried out an air strike on Sunday night in Kabul on an IS-prepared car bomb.