Reuters quoted a US official as saying that about 5 missiles were fired at the airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul, before being intercepted by a US anti-missile system.

The official said it was not clear if the missiles were completely shot down by the missile defense system.

He added that the initial information indicated that there were no American casualties, but he made it clear that this information could change.

Agence France-Presse said that its journalists heard the sounds of several missiles flying over the Afghan capital on Monday morning, a day after the United States announced that it had launched a drone strike on Sunday targeting a car bomb in Kabul.

Residents heard the response of the airport's missile defense system, also speaking of shrapnel falling on a street, indicating that at least one missile had been intercepted.

Smoke was seen rising above buildings in the area where Hamid Karzai International Airport is located.

Posts on social media - which could not be verified yet - showed a burning car, without providing additional details.

These developments come in the wake of an air strike launched by the United States yesterday, Sunday, in Kabul, targeting a booby-trapped mechanism, with the aim of "eliminating an imminent threat" to the airport of the Afghan capital originating from the Islamic State.

A spokesman for the US Central Command, Bill Urban, said that the "American defensive strike" that was launched on Sunday by a drone from outside Afghanistan, targeted "a mechanism in Kabul, to eliminate an imminent threat of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province against (Hamid Karzai) International Airport."

"We are confident that we hit the target," he added, noting that "strong secondary explosions from the mechanism showed the presence of a large amount of explosives" inside it.


US investigation into civilian deaths

In the same context, the United States is conducting an investigation into whether civilians were killed in an air strike launched by a drone to destroy a booby-trapped vehicle in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to what a spokesman for the US Central Command (Centcom) announced Sunday in a statement.

The statement came after CNN reported that nine family members, including six children, were killed in Sunday's air strike in the crowded capital, where thousands of Afghans are still gathering in an effort to leave.

"We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following the raid (which we carried out) on a vehicle in Kabul today (Sunday)," Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said in a statement.

"We are still assessing the consequences of this strike, which we know disrupted an imminent threat from ISIS-K" against the airport in Kabul, he added.

"We know that there were large and powerful explosions afterwards resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, which indicates the presence of a large amount of explosive material inside it that may have caused additional casualties," Urban said.

"It is not clear what could have happened, and we are conducting further investigations," he added.

"We will be deeply saddened by any possible loss of innocent life," he said.

Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted a source in the Taliban movement, as saying that the US forces carried out two raids that targeted a car and a house north of the capital, Kabul.

The source stated that 6 civilians, including 4 children, were killed in the raid that targeted the house.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Kabul had reported earlier that a shell had fallen on a house in the vicinity of the airport in the Afghan capital.

The United States announced on Sunday that it had carried out a "defensive" strike with a drone targeting a booby-trapped vehicle with the aim of "eliminating an imminent threat" to Kabul Airport, originating from the Islamic State-Khursan Province.


On Saturday, US President Joe Biden warned of a "very likely" new attack after Thursday's attack near Kabul airport, which was claimed by the Islamic State organization and left more than 100 people dead, including 13 American soldiers.

In response to Thursday's attack, Washington had launched a drone strike in Afghanistan, killing two members of the organization and wounding a third, warning that this strike would not be the last.

On the other hand, the bodies of the American soldiers who were killed in the two suicide bombings that took place at Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul last Friday, arrived at the Dover military base in Delaware, eastern USA.

US President Joe Biden presented the bodies of the victims, along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and a number of military officials.