An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan (Credit: Wikipedia Commons / Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
PENTAGON – WASHINGTON – A pentagon report has concluded that the U.S. airstrike that killed 10 civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan in August was an “honest mistake” that did not violate any law. The strike killed 7 children and 3 adults . Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said, the Air Force inspector general who led the investigation, briefed reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon about the probe’s findings into the August 29 drone strike. The pentagon investigation recommended no legal or disciplinary action. A Hellfire missile was fired by a Reaper drone into a suspected target vehicle that was carrying the 10 who were killed in the strike. Lt. Gen. Said discussed his office’s investigation into the U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle strike on a Toyota Corolla. At the time, U.S. personnel mistakenly thought the car was operated by ISIS-K who intended to target evacuees and military forces with explosives at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan’s capital.
“Individuals involved in the strike interviewed during this investigation truly believed at the time that they were targeting an imminent threat to U.S. forces. Regrettably, the interpretation or the correlation of the intelligence to what was being perceived at the time in real time was inaccurate. It was an honest mistake. The investigation found no violation of law, including the law of war.”
-U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said
(Photo by Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times) U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said briefs reporters on the probe’s findings at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. November 3, 2021.
The UAV operators and intelligence analysts had been monitoring multiple threat streams, according to Said. Three days before the drone strike, a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members and many Afghan evacuees. Said said the drone operators and intelligence analysts believed the strike on the vehicle was a legitimate defensive action designed to prevent an imminent attack. They didn’t realize children were in the area, he said.
VIDEO DIPLOMATIC TIMES – U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said briefs reporters on the probe’s findings at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. November 3, 2021.
Lt. Said said the stress on the force is high, and the risk to force is high. “I had the luxury of time to review that data over weeks; they didn’t,” he said. “They had the same data, but they had to assimilate it, digest it, and make a decision in a matter of hours.”
Among the report recommendations were:
- Implementing procedures to mitigate risks of confirmation bias.
- Enhancing sharing of overall mission situational awareness during execution.
- Reviewing the pre-strike procedures used to assess the presence of civilians.
The full report has been shared with the secretary of defense and operational commanders so they can assess the recommendations and decide what else they might want to do to implement corrective measures, he said. The report was also shared with the chain of command to assess the analysis and determine accountability, as appropriate.
According to Said, the full report could not be released to the public because the methods, sources, tactics, techniques and procedures used in executing such strikes are classified.
VIDEO DIPLOMATIC TIMES – U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said briefs reporters on the probe’s findings at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. November 3, 2021.
The missile strike came days after terrorists of a supposed affiliate of the Islamic State called ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. troops and 170 Afghan civilians outside Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Politicians Blast The Pentagon Probe For Its Lack of Accountability
“When there is no accountability for a mistake this grave and this costly, it sends a message all the way through the command structure that the killing of civilians is just an ordinary cost of war. This is unacceptable.”
-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
