casualties or any appreciable damage. now, the airport of course was the site of that deadly attack on thursday. the bodies of 13 u.s. service members killed in that bombing returned to the u.s. on sunday. u.s. president joe biden traveling to dover air force base in delaware to pay his respects. this was his first time watching the return of fallen u.s. troops since becoming commander in chief. and with the evacuations in kabul in their final phase the u.s. military says it took out what they call an imminent threat to the airport on sunday. they acknowledge reports of civilian casualties in that strike and say they might have been caused by explosives in the vehicle that was hit, secondary explosions. sam kylee with more on that from doha. reporter: the pentagon has confirmed that it has conducted its second strike against isis-k in afghanistan, this one in the city of kabul.
win that starts. let s go back to kabul. as you are staying, you are saying quite prophetically a few minutes ago, it did sound to you as though this had now come to an end, the americans might have already left the city of kabul. left the city of kabul. listen. let s listen. left the city of kabul. listen. let s listen. look left the city of kabul. listen. let s listen. look at - left the city of kabul. listen. let s listen. look at the - left the city of kabul. listen. | let s listen. look at the tracer fire in the air. the guns are going off. you can see the streams of red lights and see behind me the tracer fire going up in the night sky. all day we had heard the american war planes circling above the city, flying low as we thought the last american flights were ticking off providing extra cover in these last decisive hours. but it is now the sist decisive hours. but it is now the 31st of august in afghanistan. the day that presidentjoe biden said the american military mission
we are dependent on the taliban. this insurgent group we have been fighting in afghanistan for two decades for our security on the ground. the u.s. military has established this very unusual working relationship with taliban commanders who are now running the city of kabul. they said you need to do more to protect the airport from our joint enemy of isis as we pull out. they have asked the taliban to expand the security perimeter away from the gates of kabul airport to give a little more breathing room for u.s. troops. and to try to avoid whatever it is they think isis are planning, be it another high-powered bomb. be it rocket fire aimed at the airport. now, as you said, the u.s. has carried out a drone strike in the east of afghanistan on friday aimed at isis. it killed two members of that group. we don t know exactly who they
be done? yeah. i mean, look, you are exactly right in that all you are doing is basically pushing out the potential where where people gather. look. i mean, if i could go back, you know, two weeks, i would have basically secured the city of kabul. and told the taliban not to come in. they weren t going to come in until the government collapsed, until we had everybody out. but given where we are now and given that there is already a wind down detonation of american equipment, we are running out of options but i think the bottom line is as as botched as this has been, the one way we can redeem a really bad situation not redeem it. but i guess, try to try to do something good is to say every american that needs to get out can get out. and every afghanistan siv. look. i may be wrong here. but the indications we re getting on the ground have been very different than what the administration is briefing. they keep talking about we re still letting afghan sivs in. what we re hearing
this point? i spoke to former chairman mike rogers yesterday who talked about expanding the perimeter. to me, and i m certainly no expert, but that seems to, i m not sure what that actually does on a tactical level. it seems to just first of all, you would need more american troops there. you would expose them to just a greater number of people over a greater mass of area. what do you think should be done? yeah. i mean, look, you are exactly right in that. all you are doing is pushing out the potential for people gather. look, if i could go back two weeks, i would have basically secured the city of kabul and told them not to come in. but given where we are now and given there is already a wind down detonation of american equipment, we re running out of opt options. but the one way we can redeem a