US must pay ‘for killing our family’

Relatives of the victims of a US drone strike that wiped out 10 members of an Afghan family in a “tragic mistake” have demanded a face-to-face apology and compensation.

Ezmarai Ahmadi was wrongly identified as an Islamic State militant by US intelligence, which tracked his white Toyota for eight hours on August 29 before targeting the car with a missile, killing seven children and three adults.

A top general admitted the attack was an error, and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin apologised to the relatives of those killed.

Mr Ahmadi’s 22-year-old nephew, Farshad Haidari, said that was not enough. “They must come here and apologise to us face-to-face,” he said in a bombed-out, modest house in Kwaja Burga, a densely populated area of the capital Kabul.

Mr Haidari, whose brother Naser and young cousins also died, said the US had made no direct contact with the family.

“They must come and compensate us,” he said.