The United States has pledged to make undisclosed “ex gratia condolence payments,” to the families of 10 Afghan civilians — including 7 children — who were killed in a botched drone strike in August, as American troops clamored to exit the country, the Pentagon said in a statement late Friday.
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The statement follows a meeting held Thursday between U.S. officials and the head of a California-based charity that employed Zamarai Ahmadi, the Afghan man targeted and killed in the drone strike on Aug. 29.
Ahmadi, a father of four, was an aid worker with the U.S. nonprofit, which aims to alleviate malnutrition in Afghanistan. He had just arrived home to his family compound in a neighborhood west of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, when a Hellfire missile strike was conducted.
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U.S. military officials said they had tracked Ahmadi’s white Toyota sedan car for hours after the vehicle left a suspected Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) safe house. The Pentagon later issued a mea culpa and said the strike was a result of a chain of miscalculations by U.S. commanders, who wrongly believed the aid worker was hauling explosives in his car, they said.
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Thursday’s virtual meeting took place between Colin Kahl, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy and Steven Kwon, founder and president of “Nutrition & Education International,” the charity Ahmadi worked for, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in the statement on Friday.
“Dr. Kahl noted that the strike was a tragic mistake and that Mr. Zemari Ahmadi and others who were killed were innocent victims, who bore no blame and were not affiliated with ISIS-K or threats to U.S. forces,” Kirby said.
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Kahl also reiterated Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s, “commitment to the families, including offering ex gratia condolence payments,” the statement added.
During the meeting, charity founder Kwon paid tribute to Ahmadi’s work over many years, “providing care and lifesaving assistance” to Afghans, according to Kirby’s statement.
Examining a ‘righteous’ strike
The Defense Department had initially defended the drone operation as a “righteous strike.” However, in September, Secretary Austin said in a statement: “We now know that there was no connection between Mr. Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan, that his activities on that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced.”
Austin apologized for Ahmadi’s death, calling him and others innocent victims and pledged, “to learn from this horrible mistake.”
Last month, members of the Ahmadi family told The Washington Post how the attack had upended their lives, shattered their home and cast a fearful spotlight on them for having worked with foreigners, alongside the false accusations of ties to the Islamic State.
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“We are happy they have acknowledged their mistake and confirmed that they killed innocent people,” Zamarai’s 32-year-old brother Emal told The Post.
The drone strike on the family compound Ahmadi shared with his three brothers and their families killed Zamarai and three of his sons — Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 11. The three children of another brother — Arween, 7, Binyamin, 6 and Ayat, 2 — also died, along with Emal’s 3-year-old daughter, Malika, and his nephew Nasser, 30. A cousin’s infant daughter, Sumaiya, was also among those killed.
As the main breadwinner, the family depended on Zamarai’s $500 monthly salary, said Emal, and were now seeking compensation from the U.S. government and help in leaving Afghanistan for America or another safe country.
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“We want peace and comfort for our remaining years. Everyone makes mistakes. The Americans cannot bring back our loved ones, but they can take us out of here,” Samim Ahmadi, 24, the step son of Zamarai said last month.
Kirby’s statement on Friday confirmed that the Department of Defense was working with the State Department, “in support of Mr. Ahmadi’s family members who are interested in relocation to the United States.”
The drone strike came days after a suicide attack at Kabul airport claimed the lives of at least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. It also followed days of chaos in Kabul as thousands of Afghans tried to flee through the airport amid a Taliban takeover of the country and a hurried withdrawal of U.S. troops.
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On Friday suicide bombers hit a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Kandahar during weekly prayers, killing at least 50 people, in an attack claimed by Islamic State. The group also claimed a similar attack on a mosque in Kunduz last week.
The frequency of attacks had deepened concerns that in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover, other militant groups are growing in strength and finding a haven for their activities around the country. The deadly violence has also added fuel to skepticism about the Taliban’s ability to maintain security in the vast country it now controls.
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