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On November 3rd, Lt. Gen. Sami Said, U.S. Air Force inspector general, held a briefing at the Pentagon to discuss the drone strike in Kabul that killed Afghan civilians.
He said an investigation found “no violation of law” but did find “execution errors.”
Said said he didn’t find “violations of law or the law of war” and the officials behind the strike “truly believed at the time that they were targeting an imminent threat.”
The full report on the strike, which includes several recommendations on how to avoid similar incidents in the future, is classified.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, called for the classified report to be “provided immediately” to Congress.
“I remain unconvinced that the Department of Defense summary of the classified investigation … provides for real accountability,” Schiff said in a statement.
The August 29 strike occurred just days after an ISIS-K attack in Kabul killed 13 US service members and 170 Afghans, putting the US military on edge as it sought to complete evacuations amid chaotic circumstances following the Taliban takeover earlier that month.
Initially, the US military falsely claimed the strike targeted an imminent ISIS-K threat.
CENTCOM’s first statement on the strike said the following:
“We are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time.”
In a subsequent statement, CENTCOM added:
“We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today. We are still assessing the results of this strike … We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life.”
In mid-September, the US military admitted that the strike mistakenly targeted an aid worker and killed civilians.
“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,” Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of CENTCOM, told reporters at the time. The Marine Corps general said the strike “did not come up to our standards” and that “clearly the intelligence was wrong.”
In testimony to the House Armed Services Committee in late September, McKenzie told lawmakers that the US military was aware within four to five hours that the strike hit civilians.
Still, 10 civilians were killed, 7 of them were children, but it is acceptable as the drone operator who carried out the strike initially thought it was an ISIS-K terrorist nest. It didn’t violate the “rules of war” and an apology and an empty promise to improve decision-making is all that’s being given.
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arkansas nazis all upset only y 10 children murdered
Like all mass-murdering psychopaths, the US toltally absolves itsef of any wrongdoing. That amoral cesspit, that continually produces an over-abundance of psychotic maniacs, seems to wallow in the belief that it’s impervious to prosecution for war crimes…..the tide is quickly turning and there won’t be enough lamposts to hold the ammount of “Generals” etc, etc who will be facing the impending justice of the “final arbiter”.
To be clear ‘the law’ says it’s fine to wipe out a family of civilians with a drone strike however if you are even rumoured to have exposed terrorists trying to take over your country to pool chemicals … which can cause irritation if your not smart enough to move when you smell bleach … you face 100 or so cruise missiles and lose a unused university building, AND what makes the drone strike legal is “we were scared”
So the lesson here is Americans scare easily and are prone to overreact when frightened.
we murikan retired rap sinners in Milwaukie ghetto expert on international geo-politics—I have 27 years experience janitor at Burger King
Americant pirates can always sink to new lows.
adolf would be proud…
Yanky ball suckers applying arbitrary laws over someone else’s land, where they had no business being in the first place, to cover up their own war crimes. You couldn’t make it up.