U.S strikes Islamic State militants as evacuations nears end in Kabul

The United States carried out a missile strike on Islamic State militants in Kabul on Sunday, U.S officials said, as its forces at the capital's airport worked to complete a withdrawal that will end two decades of involvement in Afghanistan.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the strike targeted suspected ISIS-K militants, a group that is an enemy of both the West and the Taliban and was responsible for a suicide bomb attack outside the airport gates on Thursday.

The attack by ISIS-K, a branch of the Islamic State, killed at least 90 Afghans and 13 American troops as a huge evacuation operation was underway following the Taliban's seizure of Kabul on August 15.

The U.S. officials said they were citing initial information and cautioned it could change. Television footage showed black smoke rising into the sky but there was no immediate word on any casualties.

Two witnesses said the blast appeared to have been caused by a rocket that hit a house in an area to the northern side of the airport but there was no immediate confirmation. The U.S strike took place while about 1,000 civilians waited at the airport to be flown out before the last troops leave, a Western security official told Reuters.

"We want to ensure that every foreign civilian and those who are at risk are evacuated today. Forces will start flying out once this process is over," the official said.

U.S President Joe Biden has said he will stick by his deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Tuesday. A U.S official told Reuters on Saturday that fewer than 4,000 troops remained at the airport.

The United States and allies have taken about 114,400 people - foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans - out of the country in the past two weeks, but tens of thousands who want to go will be left behind.

The airlift is one of the biggest such evacuation operations ever marked the end of a 20-year Western mission in Afghanistan that began when U.S-led forces ousted a Taliban government that had provided safe haven for the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.