WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says the military has begun its final withdrawal from Afghanistan amid a heightened threat of terrorist attacks.
President Joe Biden says commanders told him an attack was “highly likely” over the next 24 to 36 hours.
An official says the number of U.S. troops remaining has dropped to 4,000 or fewer, three days before Biden’s deadline for getting out and ending the longest war in American history.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said a U.S. drone strike killed two members of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, and Biden says that strike “was not the last.”
“I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have,” Biden said. “We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.”
The remains of 13 U.S. troops killed Thursday in a bombing Kabul are headed home.