A DRONE strike that the Biden administration said wiped out an ISIS-K bomber actually killed an innocent aid worker and seven children who were running out to greet him, a harrowing report claimed Friday.
The Pentagon alleged that the August 29 airstrike hit a suicide bomber plotting an imminent attack during the evacuation of Kabul days after an attack killed at least 170 - including 13 US service people.
But it's claimed the target of the Hellfire missile strike was not a jihadi bomber transporting explosives, as US officials believed - but an aid worker whose car was filled with water jugs.
Zemari Ahmadi, 43, and nine members of his family, including seven children, were reportedly killed in the blast, his brother Romal Ahmadi told the New York Times.
The Pentagon initially painted the airstrike as a success, saying that only three civilians died in the process of taking out a threat.
Days after the attack, President Joe Biden gave a speech where he discussed the US leaving Afghanistan by the August 31 deadline.
He applauded the US military's ability to strike terrorists and targets without boots on the ground after the Kabul airport atrocity days earlier.
"We struck ISIS-K remotely, days after they murdered 13 of our service members and dozen of innocent Afghans. And to ISIS-K, we are not done with you yet," he said.After the strike, Capt Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Central Command, said that the "self-defense" strike eliminated "an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International Airport," and that they were "confident we successfully hit the target."
Urban also said that "significant secondary explosions" from the vehicle indicated that there was a substantial amount of explosive material in the car.
However, the Times report disputes the Pentagon's claims about the secondary explosions.
'CARRYING WATER'
Ahmadi, who worked for 14 years as a technical engineer in Afghanistan for US-based charity group Nutrition and Education International, was seen in security footage filling containers with water at his employer's office shortly before the strike.
The Times report says that drone operators weren't surveilling Ahmadi's home before the strike, but they were reportedly following what they believed to be his car.
Not long after the strike, ISIS militants used a white Toyota Carolla, the same model as the car Ahmadi drove, to launch missiles at Kabul's airport, according to the report.
The allegations, which the White House has not yet commented on, will lead to further growing criticism of the Biden administration's handling of the hasty Afghanistan exit that brought an end to America's longest war.
HASTY WITHDRAWAL
Taliban fighters quickly overwhelmed US-backed Afghan government troops over the spring and summer as American troops withdrew after 20 years of conflict.
The Biden administration has not yet released a statement on The Times' allegations.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said US Central Command is still assessing the results of the airstrike in Kabul on August 29.
"We won’t get ahead of that assessment," the statement said. "However, as we have said, no other military works harder than we do to prevent civilian casualties.
"Additionally, as Chairman Milley said, the strike was based on good intelligence, and we still believe that it prevented an imminent threat to the airport and to our men and women that were still serving at the airport."
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