A child was killed in a rocket attack on Sunday northwest of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to The Associated Press, which cited an Afghan police chief.
The attack comes as the U.S. military winds down its efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies following the Taliban takeover of the country in recent weeks.
Late Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a security alert advising Americans near the airport to leave the area “immediately,” warning of a “specific, credible threat.”
Hours before the warning, President Biden also said he was informed by officials that an attack on the airport was “highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.”
“I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritize force protection, and ensured that they have all the authorities, resources and plans to protect our men and women on the ground,” Biden said. “They assured me that they did, and that they could take these measures while completing the mission and safely retrograding our personnel.”
On Sunday morning, reports surfaced that suicide bombers bound for the airport were struck by a U.S. airstrike, just days after 13 U.S. service members were killed in a bombing at the airport.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview early Sunday that the Biden administration was working to “disrupt and prevent” more “threat streams” as U.S. forces continue their withdrawal in the region.
“There are more threat streams that we are working actively to try to disrupt and prevent and as the president has said, another attack could occur at any time,” Sullivan said on “Fox News Sunday.”
While discussing the White House’s deadline for withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan, Sullivan added that mechanisms will be in place for further evacuations beyond Aug. 31.
“There are some people who have chosen so far not to leave, and that is their right. And after Aug. 31, they are not going to be stuck in Afghanistan. We are going to ensure that we have a mechanism to get them out of the country should they choose in the future to come home,” Sullivan said.
“The Taliban have made commitments to us in that regard. We intend to hold them to those commitments, and we have leverage to hold them to those commitments,” he added.
Updated at 10:47 a.m.