Taliban calls out US for not informing about strikes, says ‘US drone attack was unlawful'

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has termed US drone strike targeting a suspected suicide bomber in Afghanistan capital, Kabul on August 29, ‘unlawful.’ America’s Sunday strike resulted reportedly in several civilian casualties and the Taliban called out the United States over its failure in informing the extremists before carrying out the strike. Mujahid told China’s state television CGTN on August 30 that seven people were killed in the US drone attack and described the action as unlawful on foreign soil which is now controlled by the Taliban.

"If there was any potential threat in Afghanistan, it should have been reported to us, not an arbitrary attack that has resulted in civilian casualties," Mujahid said in a written response to CGTN.

The US on its Sunday drone strike

However, United States Department of Defence or Pentagon officials said that the suicide car bomber had been orchestrating an attack on Kabul airport while the US troops are wrapping up their scheduled withdrawal from the war-ravaged nation. Pentagon officials also said that the attack was being planned by the suspect on behalf of ISIS-K which is a local affiliate of the Islamic State and a rival of both the West and the Taliban. 

ISIS-K had also claimed the responsibility for August 26 blasts near Kabul airport that killed over 95 Afghan nationals and 13 US troops. Following the Sunday drone strike, US Central Command said that it was probing the reports of civilian casualties. It said, “We are still assessing the results of this strike, which we know disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport.”

“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further. We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life,” it added.

Mujahid had issued a similar condemnation of a separate US drone strike carried out on Saturday that killed two Islamic State militants in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar. The Taliban spokesperson said that two women and a child were also left injured in the US attack which was a retaliation to Thursday’s blasts that marked one of the deadliest days for US troops in the last two decades.

(IMAGE: AP)