US Troops Involved in Strike on Kabul Civilians Will Not Be Punished, Pentagon Says

None of the US military personnel that were involved in US drone strike in Kabul on August 29 will be punished, the Defense Department confirmed on Monday. The strike in a residential neighborhood of Afghanistan’s capital that was supposed to stop terrorists planning an attack on the Kabul airport in the last days of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan killed 10 civilians, seven of them children. Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby in a briefing with reporters said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved several recommendations following an investigation into the incident, but that he was “not approving or calling for additional accountability measures.” The independent review of the Kabul strike that was concluded last month found that the strike was not caused by negligence or misconduct, and that no disciplinary action was necessary. The drone strike targeted an aid worker who was putting a laptop computer into his car after stopping at home to visit his family. The US plans to provide a condolence payment to the family and the Pentagon is working with the State Department to bring the man’s surviving family members to the United States, according to reports. It was the last US drone strike before US and international troops left Afghanistan at the end of August, leading to a takeover of the country by the Taliban.