I find it strange that the Pentagon will not answer simple questions about the supposed airstrike that reportedly killed 2 ‘high-profile ISIS planners’. There’s no denying it happened—There are an overwhelming amount of reports on civilian casualties. So why won’t the Pentagon name the 2 ‘high-profile ISIS planners’?
Pentagon will not release names of the 2 ‘high-profile’ ISIS planners killed in single U.S. drone strike: Kirby
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) August 28, 2021
The casualties we do know about are from a single family who was near the intended target Anchorage Daily reported:
A U.S. drone strike targeting the Islamic State killed 10 civilians in Kabul, including several small children, family members told The Washington Post on Monday.
The dead were all from a single extended family and were getting out of a car in their driveway when the strike hit a nearby vehicle, said Abdul Matin Azizi, a neighbor who saw the attack. Azizi, 20, said the explosion occurred as the family returned home Sunday afternoon.
Mourners gathered at a neighbor’s home under the shade of a grape arbor. A woman, her face raw from sobbing, approached the garden’s entrance in hysterics.
“I lost my daughter, I lost my heart,” she screamed, calling out to God before a group of women surrounded her, trying to calm her down. Suma Ahmadi’s 2-year-old daughter and three of her brothers were killed in the explosion, said Ahmad Fayaz, a relative.
Growing faint and unable to speak, Ahmadi was helped back into the shade. Fayaz said she was in hysterics all night, unable to sleep or eat. In total, eight children and young adults were killed in the attack, Fayaz said, but the exact ages of the victims were unclear.
The Pentagon’s and official’s response has been pretty convoluted. On one hand, the Pentagon claimed there were ‘no civilian casualties’. On the other, officials vowed to investigate the claims and preemptively offered condolences.
Central Command said in an earlier statement it was “aware of reports of civilian casualties,” adding: “We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life.”
Amnesty International USA’s executive director, Paul O’Brien, said Washington has a responsibility to the families of those killed to “acknowledge its actions, investigate and provide reparations.”
“Survivors awake today in Afghanistan with the unimaginable pain of having lost their loved ones with no accountability for those who have committed the airstrikes,” O’Brien said in a statement emailed to NPR.
Meanwhile, we still have no idea who the attended targets were. If the strike was actually a success or if it just served to kill innocent bystanders. The White House’s stance is we should all just trust them, without footage from the strike or details about the targets.
That just doesn’t sit right with me.
