Family says 7 children killed in Kabul drone strike

Pentagon investigating after first saying no civilians died

KABUL, Afghanistan — After work, Ezmari Ahmadi was arriving at his home Sunday in Khwaja Burgha, a working-class neighborhood a few miles west of Kabul’s airport, when calamity struck.

As he pulled into the driveway about 4:30 p.m., children — his own, as well as those of his brothers and other relatives — swarmed around Ahmadi’s Toyota Corolla. His 12-year-old son, Farzad, asked if he could park the car. Ahmadi obliged, put Farzad in the driver’s seat and switched to the passenger side.

That’s when what the family says was an American missile fired from a drone buzzing nearby drilled through the car, slammed into the ground below and detonated.

In an instant, 10 people were killed, including no fewer than seven children, Ahmadi’s brother Emal said Monday. Among the dead were Ahmadi, 40, who the family said worked for a Southern California-based charity; a 25-year-old nephew who was about to be married; and five kids ages 5 and under.

In the driveway, what remained of the Corolla Monday was a blackened, incinerated heap of metal, melted plastic, and scraps of what appeared to be human flesh and a tooth. Somewhere near the passenger’s side was a hole where a projectile had punched through. Two Los Angeles Times journalists who visited the site examined metal fragments consistent with some kind of missile.

U.S. forces, which are due to complete their pullout from Afghanistan on Tuesday, say they launched a drone strike Sunday that destroyed a car loaded with explosives and suicide bombers heading for Kabul’s airport, where a terrorist attack Thursday killed more than 180 people, including 13 U.S. service personnel.

It remained unclear Monday whether the drone strike was linked to the blast that hit Ahmadi’s car. In an initial statement after the strike, U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said the strike hit its intended target and there were no indications of civilian casualties.

But in a subsequent statement, Urban said the Pentagon was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating. “We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life,” he said.

He said the U.S. strike “disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat,” a reference to the Afghan affiliate of the militant Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for Thursday’s deadly bombing on the outskirts of the Kabul airport. After that attack, the Pentagon launched an airstrike Saturday in eastern Afghanistan that it said killed both the “facilitator” and “planner” of the bombing.

Urban said there were powerful secondary explosions from Sunday’s drone strike, which he said indicated a large amount of explosive materials inside the targeted vehicle. Those secondary explosions “may have caused additional casualties,” he said.

Urban and the U.S. Central Command have not yet responded to a request Monday from The Times for further comment.

Members of Ahmadi’s family said there was only one explosion and that the resulting fireball partly burned a Toyota SUV also in the driveway.