Pentagon Says Still Assessing Kabul Drone Strike After New Evidence Contradicts US Claims
00:16 GMT 11.09.2021 (Updated: 13:24 GMT 06.08.2022)
© AP Photo / Susan Walsh
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US military is still assessing the results of a drone strike conducted against an alleged Daesh*-K target last month in Kabul which Washington believes prevented an imminent attack, Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby told Sputnik.
Earlier in the day, The New York Times published video evidence showing Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for a US aid group, may have been mistaken for a Daesh-K terrorist by American forces before a drone strike killed 10 civilians including seven children in Afghanistan on August 29.
"US Central Command continues to assess the results of the airstrike in Kabul on August 29. We won’t get ahead of that assessment," Kirby said when asked about the new evidence. "The strike was based on good intelligence, and we still believe that it prevented an imminent threat to the airport and to our men and women that were still serving at the airport."
The New York Times investigation found that Ahmadi, who worked as an electrical engineer for the US non-governmental organization (NGO) Nutrition and Education International, left his home in the morning on August 29 to pick up a colleague and his boss's laptop, which is when the US military suspected a white sedan had left an Islamic State safe house and intercepted communications asking the driver to make several stops.
What the US military saw as suspicious activity was Ahmadi's daily activities, the report said citing his colleagues.
The US military may have mistakenly thought Ahmadi's white Toyota Corolla contained explosives that would be used against American troops at the Kabul international airport after he was seen running work-related errands and loading water containers for his home, the report said.
NEW:The Pentagon called its last attack in Kabul a “righteous” hit on an ISIS operative. An NYT team found the “operative” was an aid worker, “explosives” in his car were likely water jugs & the hit - killing 7 children - may have been tragically misguided https://t.co/8UTRc7vWep
— Matt Purdy (@mattbpurdy) September 10, 2021
The United States was on high alert after 13 US service members were killed in a Daesh-K suicide bombing attack at the Kabul airport on August 26. In response, US President Joe Biden gave US military commanders full authority to conduct operations against Daesh-K.
* Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other states
