fitness hardiness

  Another attack on Kabul airport is highly likely, US President Joe Biden has warned, saying commanders have told him it could come as early as Sunday. The US is continuing evacuations but the final UK troops, diplomats and officials have now left Kabul. A suicide bombing near the airport on Thursday resulted in some 170 deaths. A local branch of the Islamic State group - Islamic State in Khorasan Province (IS-K) - claimed the attack. In retaliation, the US carried out a drone strike on eastern Afghanistan late on Friday, saying it had killed two "high-profile" IS-K members. The two are described as a planner and a facilitator. It is unclear whether they were directly involved in planning the Kabul airport attack. "This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," Mr Biden said in a statement released on Saturday. IS-K is the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant gro...

  While the Taliban have confined their struggle to Afghanistan, the Islamic State group in Afghanistan and Pakistan has embraced the Islamic State’s call for a worldwide jihad against non-Muslims. The Islamic State offshoot that Americans blame for Thursday’s deadly suicide attacks outside the Kabul airport coalesced in eastern Afghanistan six years ago, and rapidly grew into one of the more dangerous terror threats globally. Despite years of military targeting by the U.S.-led coalition, the group known as Islamic State Khorasan has survived to launch a massive new assault as the United States and other NATO partners withdraw from Afghanistan, and as the Taliban return to power. President Joe Biden cited the threat of Islamic State attacks in sticking with a Tuesday deadline for pulling U.S. forces out of Afghanistan. Biden blamed the group for Thursday’s attacks, which included a suicide bomber who slipped into the crowds of Afghans outside airport gates controlled by U.S...

  As Western diplomats scrambled to Kabul airport while the Taliban overran the city last weekend, Russia's embassy there remained demonstratively open and announced its diplomats would work as normal. It was a sign of how, although seemingly surprised by the speed of the Taliban's takeover as the rest of the world, Russia is now trying to smoothly transition to working with the militants in power. Russian officials have so far spoken positively of the Taliban, praising them for maintaining order in the capital. Although Russia has said it will not rush to recognize the group as Afghanistan's government. "The Taliban movement currently controls virtually the entire territory of the country, including its capital. These are realities," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference with Germany's leader Angela Merkel on Friday. "And we should act based on these very realities, not allowing the Afghan state's breakup." Russi...