U.S. admits it killed 7 Afghan children in panicked withdrawal
The US military admitted on Friday that it killed 10 civilians — including seven children and aid worker Zemari Ahmadi in a drone strike near Kabul’s airport last month — and not ISIS bomb plotters, as it originally claimed.
Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander of US Central Command, said the civilians “were tragically killed” in the Aug. 29 strike on a car in the Afghan capital, which came one day before the final evacuation flights departed the city to end the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.
“I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike,” McKenzie said at a press conference. “Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K or a direct threat to US forces.”
As his military leaders were revealing the screwup Friday afternoon, President Biden had already headed to his beach house in Rehoboth, Del., for the weekend. He said nothing to reporters on his way out of the White House or upon arrival in Delaware.
The Pentagon had initially said the strike was a successful attempt to prevent another bombing of the Kabul airport after an ISIS suicide attack there killed 13 US service members and at least 169 Afghans on Aug. 26.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had staunchly defended the drone strike three days after it occurred, saying, “The procedures were correctly followed, and it was a righteous strike.”
Ahmadi and nine members of his family, including the seven children, were killed in the airstrike, according to his brother Romal Ahmadi.
Ahmadi had worked for 14 years as a technical engineer in Afghanistan for Nutrition and Education International, a Pasadena, Calif.-based charity group that feeds hungry Afghans.
Ahmadi had a pending application to move to the US as a refugee.
McKenzie said: “I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who are killed. The strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our force and the evacuees at the airport, but it was a mistake.”
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “offers his 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.”
The Defense Department said a decision had not been made on possible financial compensation to Ahmadi’s family. And there was no decision yet on whether anyone should be punished, Kirby said.
Security footage from Ahmadi’s workplace, published by The New York Times, showed the Kabul resident, whose neighborhood had unreliable water service, filling containers with water at his office at 2:35 p.m., shortly before he returned home.
A US Reaper drone’s Hellfire missile struck Ahmadi’s car at his home at 4:53 p.m., McKenzie said.
In the days after the strike, the Pentagon cited a “secondary explosion” that erupted near the Toyota sedan, claiming it was evidence that bomb material was present. But the military now believes that explosion was caused by a propane tank.
Journalists who visited the site of the attack had disputed the claim of a secondary explosion. Three weapons experts told the Times that there was no evidence of a secondary explosion caused by bomb material because there were no blown-out walls or destroyed vegetation near the car.
The Pentagon described the accidental killing of Ahmadi as a result of the frenzied evacuation effort after the Taliban swept into Kabul before Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw from the country.
“One of the most recurring aspects of the intelligence was that ISIS-K would utilize a white Toyota Corolla as a key element in the next attack.” McKenzie said. “Clearly, our intelligence was wrong on this particular white Toyota.”
The military had been given broad leeway to attack suspected terrorists without presidential approval after the airport bombing — despite consistent reports of civilian casualties linked to US airstrikes during the nearly 20year war in Afghanistan.
In a different drone strike, on Aug. 27, the US military said it killed two suspected ISIS members in eastern Afghanistan. The Biden administration has refused to reveal their names. Pentagon officials said on Friday that they stand by that attack.
Republican lawmakers slammed the White House after Friday’s news broke, arguing that the civilian deaths were a symptom of Biden’s turbulent withdrawal of troops from the country, which led to the rapid fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, blasted Biden’s rhetoric on the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies, which has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats.
“Biden, 8/31: ‘This is the way the mission was designed.’ Americans are stuck in Afghanistan. Civilians, including children, were killed in the air strike that missed its intended target. This is how the mission was designed?” Gimenez tweeted.
Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) argued that the tragic mistake cast doubt on Biden’s ability to keep Americans who remain in the country safe.
“President Biden has said that the horizon capabilities in Afghanistan can keep Americans safe but the recent drone strike that hit the wrong target, killing civilians but not ISIS terrorists, calls that into question,” she tweeted.
Rep. Fred Keller (R-Pa.) called for punishment against those responsible for the miscalculation.
“Another horrendous consequence of Biden’s botched withdrawal in Afghanistan,” Keller said. “There must be accountability.”
Added Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.): “This is an unbelievably senseless tragedy. There needs to be more accountability from the Biden administration as we face the fallout of this chaotic withdrawal.”