On 29 August, the US military had destroyed a vehicle, claiming that he was “charged with explosives”, and assuring thus foaming an attempt at attack.
Le Monde with AFP
The American strike by drone who killed ten Afghan civilians, including seven children, in Kabul on 29 August was a tragic mistake but she did not violate the laws of war, affirmed Wednesday 3 November the Pentagon after a Internal investigation.
“The investigation did not identify any violation of the law, including the law of war,” said Lieutenant-General Sami Said in a report, a manager of the Ministry of Defense. “Execution errors combined with a confirmation bias and breaks in communication have resulted in regrettable civil losses,” he added.
In front of the press in the Pentagon, Lieutenant-General Said insisted that it was an “error”, not a “criminal, random or negligence” behavior. The people involved have “believed at the time that they targeted an imminent threat”, three days after an attack of the local branch of the Islamic State, the Ei-K, who had killed 13 American soldiers and a hundred Afghans near Kabul airport, he says in his report.
Bad car
The typing was conducted in full during the chaotic withdrawal from the United States of Afghanistan. On August 29, the US military had destroyed a Toyota Corolla white vehicle, claiming that he was “charged with explosives” and assuring that he thus foiled for an attempt to attack EIS-K. But the driver’s family of the vehicle, Ezmarai Ahmadi, had reported that he was employed by an NGO and ten people, including seven children, had been killed. The American Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin had presented his “sincere condolences” and his “apologies” for this burr.
“The expected target of the strike – the vehicle, its content and its occupant – has in good faith been evaluated at the time as an imminent threat to US forces,” according to the investigation report. This evaluation “was unfortunately inaccurate, according to the text. But “the threats to the American forces at the airport were at the very high time,” he justifies.
Lieutenant-General Said explained that the US military had information on an imminent attack of the EIS-K, and more specifically on a white Toyota Corolla containing explosives of the type used three days earlier . But the American soldiers followed the wrong car. “In fact, we never followed the good Toyota Corolla,” he admitted.
29 people interviewed
In addition, the military believed that the building next to which the striking was conducted was empty. None of those responsible for analyzing satellite images has noticed a child entering the two-minute monitoring area before striking.