US warns of security threat from IS near Kabul airport

Biden Says Qaida No More In Af, Pentagon Counters

- Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington: US President Biden is battling a serious loss of personal credibility and political capital after some of his assertions on Afghanistan have been contradicted — by his own administration, by the US military, and by ground realities. Bumbling through a White House press conference on Friday, Biden claimed that the US mission in Afghanistan was essentially over since Osama bin Laden had been killed and alQaida was “gone” from the country, but Pentagon officials said soon after that al-Qaida, as well as Islamic State, remain a presence in Afghanistan.