6 Children reported killed in air-strike

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The United States carried out a defensive airstrike in the Afghan capital, Kabul, targeting a suspected ISIS-K suicide bomber who posed an "imminent" threat to the airport, US Central Command said Sunday.

The US military acknowledged later Sunday that there are reports of civilian casualties following the strike. "We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further," Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for US Central Command, said in a statement.

"We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life," he added.

The statement followed CNN's reporting that nine members of one family, including six children, were killed in the drone strike, according to a brother of one of those killed, who spoke to a local journalist working with CNN. US Central Command said earlier they were assessing the possibility of civilian casualties.

Used to I would feel horrified and disgusted over such a thing being done. Now I just feel emptiness... I mean what exactly can anybody who actually gives a s**t do about this sort of thing?

Used to I would feel horrified and disgusted over such a thing being done. Now I just feel emptiness... I mean what exactly can anybody who actually gives a s**t do about this sort of thing?

That is where I end up a lot of times at the end of the day...it is like yeah I feel for it, like yeah can't help it just can't get it out of my head that I feel bad about the women in afganistan with all the crap that has happened there, I get to walk around in shorts and a skimpy shirt and women there are probably being forced back into wearing tent robes over themselves over there...and it's hard not to feel bad about that I guess.

But at the end of the day, what can I do about it? well about as much as I can do about the plastic problem which is largely nothing.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

Used to I would feel horrified and disgusted over such a thing being done. Now I just feel emptiness... I mean what exactly can anybody who actually gives a s**t do about this sort of thing?

i watched some of the Manning leaks of drone strikes, with the drone pilots' voice communication recorded.

if a drone strike kills a child, that child is then callef a "fun-sized terrorist".

<sarcasm>

so, six fun-sized terrorists were killed in a drone strike. I guess America must be winning.
I mean, how many terrorist can there be?

</sarcasm>

sorry, but I don't really know how to deal with this, emotionally. it's just the culmination of a 20 year long clusterf**k the american empire engaged in for the purpose of demonstrating its power, with no defined win-condition.
I guess, great times for investors in Halliburton.

After a day at work, Ezmari Ahmadi was just arriving at his home Sunday in Khwaja Burgha, a working-class neighborhood a few miles west of Kabul’s airport, when calamity struck.

As he pulled into the driveway about 4:30 p.m., children — his own as well as those of his brothers and other relatives — swarmed around Ahmadi’s Toyota Corolla. His 12-year-old son, Farzad, asked if he could park the car. Ahmadi obliged, put Farzad in the driver’s seat and switched to the passenger side.

That’s when what the family says was an American missile fired moments before from a drone buzzing nearby drilled through the car, slammed into the ground below and detonated.

In an instant, 10 people were killed, including no fewer than seven children, Ahmadi’s brother Emal said Monday. Among the dead were Ahmadi, 40, who the family said worked for a Southern California-based charity; a 25-year-old nephew who was about to be married; and five kids who were 5 years old or younger.

L.A. Times now reporting 10 were killed, including 7 children:

Source: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-08-30/family-says-several-children-killed-us-missile-strike-kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan — It was the last known missile fired by the United States in its 20-year war in Afghanistan, and the military called it a “righteous strike” — a drone attack after hours of surveillance on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought contained an ISIS bomb and posed an imminent threat to troops at Kabul’s airport.

But a New York Times investigation of video evidence, along with interviews with more than a dozen of the driver’s co-workers and family members in Kabul, raises doubts about the U.S. version of events, including whether explosives were present in the vehicle, whether the driver had a connection to ISIS, and whether there was a second explosion after the missile struck the car.

Military officials said they did not know the identity of the car’s driver when the drone fired, but deemed him suspicious because of how they interpreted his activities that day, saying that he possibly visited an ISIS safe house and, at one point, loaded what they thought could be explosives into the car.

Times reporting has identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The evidence suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family.

While the U.S. military said the drone strike might have killed three civilians, Times reporting shows that it killed 10, including seven children, in a dense residential block.

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Since the strike, U.S. military officials justified their actions by citing an even larger blast that took place afterward.

“Because there were secondary explosions, there is a reasonable conclusion to be made that there was explosives in that vehicle,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, said last week.

But an examination of the scene of the strike, conducted by the Times visual investigations team and a Times reporter the morning afterward, and followed up with a second visit four days later, found no evidence of a second, more powerful explosion.

Experts who examined photos and videos pointed out that, although there was clear evidence of a missile strike and subsequent vehicle fire, there were no collapsed or blown-out walls, no destroyed vegetation, and only one dent in the entrance gate, indicating a single shock wave.

“It seriously questions the credibility of the intelligence or technology utilized to determine this was a legitimate target,” said Chris Cobb-Smith, a British Army veteran and security consultant.

(CNN)A United States military investigation into a deadly Kabul drone strike on a vehicle in August has found it killed 10 civilians and the driver and that the vehicle targeted was likely not a threat associated with ISIS-K, announced Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top general of US Central Command, at the Pentagon on Friday.

McKenzie told reporters that the strike -- which he said killed seven children -- was a "mistake" and offered an apology.

"This strike was taken in the 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," he said.

McKenzie added that he is "fully responsible for this strike and this tragic outcome."

The Pentagon's announcement will likely fuel more criticism of the Biden administration's chaotic evacuation of Kabul and handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan more broadly. While McKenzie stressed Friday that future strikes will likely be held to a higher standard, confirmation of the civilian death toll also provides insight into the obstacles ahead for military and intelligence officials tasked with fulfilling President Joe Biden's promise to make the terror group "pay" for its deadly suicide attack in Kabul.

The Pentagon had maintained that at least one ISIS-K facilitator and three civilians were killed in what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley had previously called a "righteous strike" on the compound on August 29. The investigation released Friday found that all of those killed in the residential compound were civilians.

In the lead up to the strike, drone operators surveilled the courtyard for up to 4 to 5 minutes. In that time, a male driver left the vehicle. One child was parking the vehicle and other children were present in the car and the courtyard -- as CNN had been told by the Ahmadi family.

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Previously, US Central Command pointed to "significant secondary explosions" as evidence of a "substantial amount of explosive material" in the vehicle. On Friday, the US military source said that after reviewing footage from infra-red sensors, they would no longer characterize this as an explosion -- instead, it was more of a flare up.