New York Times Indicates Kabul Drone Strike Killed Innocent Family, Aid Worker Distributing Food
BLP Staff
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A New York Times investigation has indicated that a drone strike supposedly targeting ISIS suicide bombers in Kabul following the attack at the airport actually killed an innocent aid worker and a family in a dense residential city block.
An article on the Times investigation, published on Friday, concluded that a drone strike misidentified an aid worker who was distributing food as an ISIS suicide bomber. Zemari Ahmadi, a casualty of the drone strike the day after a bombing at the Kabul airport killed 13 service members, was reportedly an employee of an American NGO called Nutrition and Education International.
The military said it believed Zemari Ahmadi’s white Toyota Corolla, which it tracked by drone for eight hours that day, was packed with explosives. Security camera video we obtained showed him loading it with water containers for his home. I'll detail our findings in this thread. pic.twitter.com/1hEaFBmcDo
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021
Commanders overseeing drone operations reportedly confused water canisters in Ahmadi’s Toyota Corolla with explosives. Another white Toyota Corolla had reportedly been identified leaving an ISIS-Khorasan safehouse in Ahmadi’s neighborhood, leading to the confusion.
The Biden administration lied about who it killed with its drone strike. They had no idea who they hit. The media mindlessly repeated the false claim that they killed "terrorists" when, in fact, they just killed innocent people.
A perfect summation of the US Endless Wars: https://t.co/1qNbQZWrYQ
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 10, 2021
Among the ten civilians killed in the drone strike was a 2-year old girl. The Pentagon acknowledged civilian casualties as collateral damage shortly following the strike, intended as retaliation against ISIS. However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby had insisted the strike hit an ISIS suicide bomber who intended to bomb American troops at the airport, an assertion the New York Times’ reporting appears to refute.
Ahmadi, who worked for an American charity for fourteen years, had reportedly been delivering meals to Afghans in refugee facilities around Kabul. He had recently began completing documents seeking to travel to the United States as an asylum seeker. The New York Times cites conversations with five associates of Ahmadi who deny the father and family man had anything to do with ISIS.
The tragedy of a chaotic and avoidable disaster at the Kabul Airport appears to have spiraled out of the control of the Biden administration, leading to pain and suffering for Americans and Afghans alike.
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