US still ‘in charge of Kabul airport’, troops began retrograding: Pentagon

Washington [US], August 28 (ANI): The US military has “begun retrograding” from the Kabul airport and it’s “still in charge of the airport” and the security, Pentagon said on Saturday.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that the US troops are “retrograding” from the Hamid Karzai International airport and noted that Washington is “still in charge of the airport” and the security, CNN reported.

Earlier in the day, the Taliban had claimed that US soldiers left three gates and some other parts of Kabul airport and the terror group started controlling the areas, reported TOLO news.

However, Pentagon has assured that the US will continue to operate the Kabul airport.

“We are going to continue to operate the airport up until the end. We will continue to run that airfield to make sure that we can execute our operations,” Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations Army Major General William Hank Taylor said at a press conference on Saturday.

Earlier Pentagon informed that two “high-profile ISIS targets” were killed during an airstrike in Afghanistan on Friday.

“I can confirm, as more information has come in, that two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, and one was wounded. And we know of zero civilian casualties,” said Major General Taylor.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber and multiple ISIS-K gunmen killed 13 US service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians in the attack at the Kabul airport. (ANI)