WASHINGTON – Pentagon has admitted that a drone attack in Kabul had mistakenly killed 10 civilians including seven children.
The US had launched the airstrike on August 29, targeting a car believed to be carrying Daesh militants. The attack had been launched after deadly suicide blast at Kabul airport that had killed more than 100 people including US servicemen.
Now, the US Central Command chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie in a statement said that all the killed persons were civilians.
“As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for this strike and its tragic outcome,” McKenzie told reporters.
“At the time of the strike, I was confident that the strike had averted an imminent threat to our forces at the airport,” he said, adding: “Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake.”
McKenzie called it a tragic mistake.
In a statement, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that drone strike had killed a Mr Ahmadi, who worked for a non-profit organisation called Nutrition and Education International.
“We now know that there was no connection between Mr Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan, that his activities on that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced,” Austin said in the statement.
“We apologise, and we will endeavour to learn from this horrible mistake.”
At that time, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that the US drone strike had killed seven cilitans.
