It’s a good thing they're no longer walking on the face of the Earth: John Kirby on ISIS-K casualties

Kirby addressed a news conference on the counter-terrorism operation conducted on the terror outfit that claimed responsibility for suicide bombings outside the Kabul Airport that killed nearly 200 people, including 13 US troops.

He declined to name the two ISIS-Khorasan members eliminated in the terror operation conducted in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.

"I am not going to talk about specific capabilities the ISIS may have lost. In this strike they lost a planner and they lost a facilitator and got one wounded," he said.

"The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for the people of Afghanistan and it’s a good thing for the for our troops, for our forces at the airport," Kirby added.

"We aren’t thinking for a minute that what happened yesterday gets us in the clear. We believe hitting these targets will have an impact of ISIS-K," he further said.

Asked if the US would be sticking to the August 31 deadline for withdrawal, he said: “We are going to complete this mission by the end of the month."

Nothing has changed about the timeline for us. We will do this as safe and orderly way as possible. That includes being able to continue to evacuate right up until the end," he added.

On the threats of more terror attacks, he said: “Threats are still very real. They’re very dynamic, and we are monitoring them literally in real time. As I said yesterday, we’re taking all the means necessary to make sure we remain focused on that threat stream and doing what we can for force protection.”

He also denied reports that the Taliban were shutting the gates of Kabul airport.

“There was some reports that the Taliban were shutting down the gates, and there was reporting that we were shutting down all evacuation operations in the course of the day. Those are not true, we are not shutting down evacuation operations, we are going to continue.

We are in charge of the airport, and we are in charge of security at the airport, and what was true a few days ago, is still true today. The Taliban have checkpoints around the airport’s loose perimeter. They are not manning the gates, they are not at the airport, or doing any security roles or anything like that," he clarified.

Asked how many ISIS-K prisoners are believed to have been released at Bagram air base when it was taken over by the Taliban, he said: "Well, I don't know the exact number. Clearly, it's in the thousands."

Major General Hank Taylor who also addressed the media said, “Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed in last night's airstrike and one was wounded.”

He added that the Pentagon will soon release the names of the 13 US troops killed in the Kabul attack.