By Tony O’Riley-
The US now has admitted that a drone strike in Kabul days before its military pullout killed , tragically killed 10 innocent people.
A US Central Command investigation found that the strike killed on the 29th of August, which was targeting a suspected terrorist group, instead killed an aid worker along with nine members of his family, including seven children.
The youngest victim of the strike, Sumaya, was just two years old.
The tragic news is heart rendering, and could fuel high resentment against the U.S, even when the deadly error was not intended. Lives have been snuffed out due to an error critics believe a long eight hour tracking process should have avoided.
US intelligence embarassingly mistook the man to have been linked to a terrorist group after tracking the man’s car for eight hours, the Pentagon said.
The inquiry found the aid worker’s car had been seen at a compound associated with IS-K, and its movements aligned with other intelligence about the terror group’s plans for an attack on Kabul airport.At one point, a surveillance drone saw men loading what appeared to be explosives into the trunk of the car, but it turned out to be containers of water. The quality of the racking was evidently not high enough.
General Kenneth McKenzie described the strike as a tragic mistake and that it was “unlikely” the family was associated with IS-K or was a threat to US forces.
“It was a mistake and I offer my sincere apologies”, he said.
The authorities had believed there was a very real, a very specific and a very imminent threat” against Kabul’s Hamad Karzai International airport from IS-K (Islamic State Khorasan Province), IS’s Afghan affiliate.
The strike happened as the aid worker – named as Zamairi Akmadhi – pulled into the driveway of his home, 3km from the airport, killing all 10 family members in what was a dreadful calamity.
The explosion set off a large secondary blast, which US officials initially said was proof that the car was indeed carrying explosives. However the investigation has found it was most likely caused by a propane tank in the driveway.
One of those killed, Ahmad Naser, had been a translator with US forces. Other victims had previously worked for international organisations and held visas allowing them entry to the US.
“It’s wrong, it’s a brutal attack, and it’s happened based on wrong information,” Ramin Yousufi, one of the relatives said.
He added, tearfully: “Why have they killed our family? Our children? They are so burned out we cannot identify their bodies, their faces.”