by Rose L Thayer at Stars & Stripes
Ten civilians, including seven children, were killed in the Aug. 29 drone strike in Kabul that military leaders had said destroyed a car filled with explosives and driven by an Islamic State terrorist, the top U.S. general in the Middle East said Friday.
“It was a terrible mistake,” said Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command.
McKenzie said no ISIS terrorists were killed in the strike and they are considering reparations for the families of those killed.
The Reaper drone strike was the last known airstrike launched by American forces in Afghanistan before the final U.S. troops pulled out of Kabul just before midnight Aug. 31. Defense officials in announcing the strike Aug. 29 said it had disrupted an imminent suicide attack against Hamid Karzai International Airport. The U.S. military used the Kabul airfield to lead an about two-week effort to evacuate Americans and their allies, including Afghans, from the country after the Taliban takeover Aug. 15.
“I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who are killed,” McKenzie said. “This strike was taken in earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport, but it was a mistake. And I offer my sincere apology. As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for this strike in this tragic outcome.”
CENTCOM recently opened a high-level command investigation and a civilian casualty assessment into that strike after The New York Times reported the strike conducted in the waning days of U.S. involvement in the Afghanistan war actually killed a local worker for a U.S.-based aid company and up to 10 nearby civilians.
The drone strike came just days after a suicide bomber with ISIS-Khorasan — Afghanistan’s ISIS affiliate known as ISIS-K — blew himself up just outside the airport, killing 13 American service members, wounding nearly two dozen more and killing and maiming hundreds of Afghans crowded around the airfield’s gates. U.S. officials at that time were on high alert about the potential for another terrorist attack on the airport and warned publicly such an assault was likely imminent.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered his condolences and directed a review of CENTCOM’s investigation.
“I have asked for this review to consider the degree to which the investigation considered all available context and information, the degree to which accountability measures need be taken and at what level, and the degree to which strike authorities, procedures and processes need to be altered in the future,” Austin said in a statement.
A CENTCOM statement just after the strike claimed it caused secondary explosions, indicating explosives were inside the car.
The CENTCOM investigation found the secondary explosion was caused by a propane tank located behind the white Toyota Corolla that was hit with a missile at about 4:51 p.m. on Aug. 29, McKenzie said.
Intelligence gathered by U.S. personnel led the military to a vehicle of that make and model, and this particular Corolla was at a location of interest, the general said. It’s now known that the compound was the Office of Nutrition and Education.
Without forces on the ground…
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