No violation of law in Kabul drone strike: Pentagon Report
Nov 04, 2021
By Reena Bhardwaj
Washington [US], November 4 : A Pentagon investigation into the US drone strike that mistakenly killed Afghan civilians on August 29, found no violation of law in the strike that killed ten including an aid worker and his family members.
The strike was the result of "execution errors combined with confirmation bias and communication breakdowns," Lt Gen Sami Said, the inspector general of the Air Force, said at a press conference Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Said noted that officials involved in the strike "truly believed at the time that they were targeting an imminent threat," but that their assessment was "regrettably inaccurate".
He stressed that the drone strike should be viewed in the context of the environment, in which intelligence showed a "very high" threat to US forces in the wake of an Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) bombing that killed 13 US service members and 170 Afghan civilians at Kabul's airport on August 26.
The full report is classified to protect sources and methods. The report and its recommendations have been transmitted to senior Pentagon officials, who will determine whether to take disciplinary action.
The strike occurred on August 29 near the airport during the final, chaotic days of the US evacuation of civilians and military retreat from Afghanistan that killed 10 civilians, including seven children.
The military claimed at the time that the strike prevented "multiple suicide bombers" from attacking Hamid Karzai International Airport.
The US officials had first said that they have targeted ISIS-K affiliates who were an imminent threat to them as they were busy evacuating people from Hamid Karzai International Airport now Kabul International Airport
The United States had said that it will pay an unspecified amount of condolence money and will relocate the family of those who were killed in a mishandled drone attack of the US in Kabul.
