President Biden on Saturday said that he spoke with his national security team about the two ISIS-K targets who were killed during Friday night's airstrike.
What they're saying: "We discussed the strike that U.S. forces took last night against the terrorist group ISIS-K in Afghanistan," Biden said. "I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have."
- "I can confirm, two high profile targets were killed and one was wounded …We will continue to have the ability to defend ourselves … as needed," Army Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor said Saturday.
- "The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that’s a good thing," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby added. "We believe that we hit valid targets — bad guys who can do bad things and can plan bad missions."
- Kirby confirmed that the two targets were involved in the attack on the Kabul airport.
- Biden on Thursday said he has directed the Pentagon to develop plans to "strike" ISIS-K "assets, leadership and facilities" in response to the Kabul airport bombing, which killed as many as 170 people, in addition to 13 U.S. service members.
State of play: Taylor explained that the two "high profile" targets were "planners and facilitators" for ISIS-K.
- Kirby said it "absolutely" impacted ISIS-K because "they have lost some capability to plan and conduct missions."
- The Pentagon will not be releasing the names of the targets.
Of note: Defense officials said the evacuation mission will finish by Aug. 31, "nothing has changed about the timeline," according to Kirby.
- He added that U.S. forces have begun "retrograding" from the Kabul airport.