International

US Military Releases Footage Of Drone Strike That Killed 10 Afghan Civilians

Published

3 years ago

Jan 20, 2022.

Yinka Akanbi

The Pentagon defended the strike at first, claiming it had killed an ISIS-K operative planning an imminent attack on US forces…

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the US military released videos Wednesday of the botched August 29 drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children.

The newly released videos show the view from above Kabul as the military tracked a white Toyota Corolla through parts of the city, believing that it was an ISIS-K car laden with explosives and building a case for targeting it with a preemptive strike.

The Pentagon defended the strike at first, claiming it had killed an ISIS-K operative planning an imminent attack on US forces during the final days of the evacuation and withdrawal from Afghanistan. Only three days earlier, an ISIS-K suicide bomber had killed 13 US service members and dozens of Afghans at Abbey Gate, the key entry point to the airport.

With ongoing threats of another attack, the US strike cell believed it was tracking an ISIS-K member from a terrorist hideout as he made his way through the city over the course of eight hours.

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In reality, the military was tracking Zamarai Ahmadi, an Afghan who worked for Nutrition and Education International, a nongovernmental organization focused on food security. Ahmadi had applied for a special immigrant visa and intended to bring his family to the United States.

Approximately three weeks after the strike, the military acknowledged it was a tragic mistake that had killed 10 innocent civilians. A subsequent Air Force review of the circumstances around the strike found “no violation of law, including the law of war.”

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