Afghanistan-Taliban: US airstrike kills bombing attack "planner"

The U.S. military said on Friday it had carried out a drone attack on a "planner" of the Islamic State Khorasan, the group that claimed credit for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport.

"The airstrike happened in Nangahar province in Afghanistan. First indications are that we killed the target," said Captain Bill Urban of the Central Command.

"We know of no civilian casualties," he added in a statement.

U.S. forces helping evacuate Afghans desperate to escape Taliban rule were on alert for more attacks Friday after at least one Islamic State suicide bomber killed 170 people, including 13 U.S. soldiers outside the doors of Kabul Airport.

Two blasts and gunfire rolled the area outside the airport on Thursday evening, witnesses stated. Video shot by Afghan journalists showing dozens of bodies around a canal on the edge of the airport.

The Taliban declared the two explosions killed between 13 and 20 people. A health official in the previous government said the count was at least 85.

President Joe Biden has promised to "chase" the terrorists and "pay" them for the deadly attacks outside Kabul airport in which 13 U.S. service members were killed, and 18 others were injured.

The United Nations on Saturday issued an urgent appeal for aid to some seven million Afghan farmers in the war-torn nation, which is facing the threat of severe drought.

Covid-19 has further pressured agricultural workers in the country, who are now controlled by the Taliban after they overthrew the US-backed government this month.

The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization said the farmers worst affected by a drought in the country were among about 14 million people - or one in three Afghans - who were "food insecure and in dire need of humanitarian aid".

"Urgent agricultural support is now the key to anticipating the impact of the drought and a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan's large rural areas in the weeks and months ahead," FAO Director Qu Dongyu said in a statement.

Afghanistan is facing its second severe drought in three years, and the UN said this week that it could run out of its white flour from October.

"If we do not help the people most affected by the acute drought, large numbers will be forced to give up their homes and be displaced in certain areas," Qu added.

"This threatens to further deepen life insecurity and poses yet another threat to the stability of Afghanistan."

The organization said it was facing an $ 18 million (15 million euro) shortfall in funding to support its drought response plan in Afghanistan. It hopes to help 250,000 families, or about 1.5 million people, for the coming winter season.

But the lack of funding means that only 110,000 families can be supported.

The appeal comes as humanitarian organizations fear that the arrival of the Taliban could hinder access to aid supplies and personnel.

The UN warned earlier this week that low food supplies were threatening to plunge Afghanistan into a humanitarian catastrophe.