Investigation Suggests US Drone Strike May Have Killed Aid Worker And Seven Children

A US drone strike targeting an ISIS suicide bomber in Kabul may have actually killed an aid worker and seven children, according to an investigation by The New York Times.

The report suggests that Zemari Ahmadi, 43, had filled his 1996 Toyota Corolla with water jugs, not explosives, before it was targeted in a drone strike on 29 August, killing him and nine family members, including seven children.

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Following the attack, Joe Biden spoke of the USA's ability to target terrorists remotely as troops withdrew from Afghanistan.

However, Ahmadi's family state in the new investigation that they lost 10 family members in the drone strike.

Ahmadi's family said the strike took the lives of him and three of his children, Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 10; Ahmadi's cousin Naser, 30; three of brother Romal's children, Arwin, seven, Benyamin, six, and Hayat, two; and two three-year-old girls, Malika and Somaya.

Neighbours and an Afghan health official confirmed that bodies of children were removed from the site.

But US officials insist only three civilians died.

Speaking last week, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, said: "Because there were secondary explosions, there is a reasonable conclusion to be made that there was explosives in that vehicle."

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The Times' investigation found no evidence of a secondary explosion though, and Ahmadi's family said he worked for US-based aid group Nutrition and Education International, and had loaded nothing more than jugs of water into his vehicle.

Ahmadi's brother Emal said: "All of them were innocent. You say he was ISIS, but he worked for the Americans."

In a statement to the Daily Mail yesterday (Friday 11 September), Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby stood by the intelligence assessment that led to the strike, but didn't deny there were civilian casualties.

He said: "U.S. Central Command continues to assess the results of the airstrike in Kabul on August 29. We won't get ahead of that assessment.

"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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Speaking following the drone strike, the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the moral responsibility for civilian casualties caused by US drone strikes 'lies with the terrorists'.

He told Times Radio: "The right of self-defence is ultimately for every country to decide, but we do support exercising it and of course it has got to be targeted in accordance with international law, and the aim of the Americans was to hit a terrorist.

"And we know history shows - recent history in particular - that terrorists will try to hide in cover where civilians are at risk. I think the moral responsibility of that lies with the terrorists."

Topics: US News

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey