WASHINGTON, DC — A top general admitted the United
States had made a "mistake" when it launched a drone strike against
suspected Daesh militants in Kabul, killing 10 civilians including children
instead during the frenzied final days of the US
pullout from Afghanistan last
month.
اضافة اعلان
The strike, a macabre coda to the 20-year US war in
Afghanistan, was meant to target a suspected Daesh operation that US
intelligence had "reasonable certainty" aimed to attack the Kabul
airport, said US Central Command commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie.
"The strike was a tragic mistake," McKenzie told
reporters after an investigation.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin apologized to the
relatives of those killed in a statement.
"I offer my deepest condolences to surviving family
members of those who were killed," Austin said in a statement.
"We apologize, and we will endeavor to learn from this
horrible mistake," he said.
McKenzie said the government was studying on how payments
for damages could be made to the families of those killed.
White Toyota Corolla
The general said that on August 29 US forces had tracked a
white Toyota for eight hours after seeing it at a site in Kabul that
intelligence had identified as a location from which Daesh operatives were
believed to be preparing attacks on the Kabul airport.
Intelligence reports had led US forces to watch for a white
Toyota Corolla that the group was allegedly using, he said.
"We selected this car based on its movement at a known
target area of interest to us," McKenzie said.
"Clearly our intelligence was wrong on this particular
white Toyota," he said.
The drone strike killed 10 people, including seven children,
according to McKenzie, none of who ultimately were linked to Daesh.
McKenzie defended the US operation as in "self-defense
strike" amid concerns about an attack on the airport in the last days of
the chaotic evacuation.
On August 26 a Daesh-Khorasan suicide bomber had killed
scores at the airport, including 13 US service members. Huge crowds were there
clamoring to get inside and on board one of the final evacuation flights out of
the country.
"There were over 60 clear threat vectors that we were
dealing with at this time," McKenzie said.
US officials believed that the car had been loaded with
explosives. The New York Times reported that it was filled with canisters of
water.
McKenzie said that no civilians had been spotted in the area
at the time the strike was authorized.
'Completely harmless'
One of those killed was an Afghan man who worked for a US
aid group, Ezmarai Ahmadi.
"We now know that there was no connection between Mr
Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan," said Austin.
He said Ahmadi's activities that day were "completely
harmless," and that the man was "just as innocent a victim as were
the others tragically killed."
Ahmadi's brother Aimal told AFP that the car had been filled
with children pretending that the parking routine was an adventure.
"The rocket came and hit the car full of kids inside
our house," he said.
"It killed all of them."
"My brother and his four children were killed. I lost
my small daughter, ... nephews and nieces," he said disconsolately.
AFP was unable to independently verify Aimal's account.
"On behalf of the men and women of the Department of
Defense, I offer my deepest condolences to surviving family members of those
who were killed, including Mr Ahmadi, and to the staff of Nutrition and
Education International, Mr Ahmadi’s employer," Austin said.
More than 71,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians have died
directly from the war launched by the United States after the September 11,
2001 attacks, with casualties rising dramatically after then president Donald
Trump relaxed rules of engagement in 2017, according to a Brown University
study in April.
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