Pentagon Review Finds US Drone Strike in Kabul That Killed 10 Was Legal

The US Pentagon has conducted an independent review of the US drone strike in Kabul on August 29 that left 10 Afghan civilians, most of them children, dead. The review found that the strike, which took place on the last days of the US withdrawal from the country and the takeover of the Taliban, was not caused by negligence or misconduct, and that no disciplinary action is necessary, The Associated Press reported.

The independent review was conducted by Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami Said, an inspector general of the US Air Force who did not have any direct connection to Afghanistan operations.

Said said that there were breakdowns in communication and in the process of identifying and confirming the target of the bombing, but that better communication and verification of the target may not have prevented the strike, AP reported citing an unnamed senior defense official familiar with the report. Said noted that the US troops were under a large amount of stress during their final days in Kabul.

Ten members of one extended family, including seven children, were killed in the Aug. 29 attack in a residential neighborhood. The US military said at the time that it had targeted an Islamic State operative planning to carry out an attack as the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops from Afghanistan was coming to an end. An investigation showed that the target of the attack, Zemari Ahmadi, worked for the Nutrition & Education International aid organization.

The drone attack came just days after an Islamic State suicide bomber killed 13 US troops and 169 Afghans at a gate into the Kabul airport. The US was working to evacuate thousands of Americans, Afghans and others following the Taliban takeover. The review said that the US military believed that the car Ahmadi was driving posed a serious threat to US troops.