An errant onslaught that killed 10 civilians has called into question the reliability of the quality that volition beryllium utilized to behaviour aboriginal U.S. operations successful Afghanistan.
Sept. 21, 2021Updated 5:40 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — U.S. subject officials person insisted since the past American troops withdrew from Afghanistan past period that they would beryllium capable to observe and onslaught Islamic State oregon Qaeda threats successful the state from afar.
But an errant drone onslaught that killed 10 civilians, including 7 children, successful Kabul on Aug. 29 calls into question the reliability of the quality that volition beryllium utilized to behaviour the operations.
U.S. commanders concede that the missions volition beryllium much hard without a subject beingness successful the country. But caller details astir the drone strike, which the Pentagon initially said was indispensable to forestall an onslaught connected American troops, amusement the limitations of specified counterterrorism missions adjacent erstwhile U.S. forces are connected the ground.
“The U.S. has a unspeakable grounds successful this regard, and aft decades of failed accountability, successful the discourse of the extremity of the warfare successful Afghanistan, the U.S. should admit that their processes person failed, and that captious reforms and much autarkic extracurricular scrutiny is vital,” John Sifton, the Asia advocacy manager astatine Human Rights Watch, said successful an email.
Thirty-six hours earlier the strike, quality analysts and drone operators astatine a basal successful Qatar were sifting done much than 60 circumstantial pieces of quality — immoderate conflicting, immoderate mutually reinforcing — related to an imminent ISIS attack, according to Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the commandant of the military’s Central Command.
The group, called the Over-the-Horizon Strike Cell, was created successful aboriginal July to way and disrupt plots successful Afghanistan by Al Qaeda oregon the Islamic State that threatened the U.S. homeland. After the abrupt Taliban takeover of the country, the compartment began focusing connected ISIS threats against the thousands of American troops astatine Hamid Karzai International Airport successful Kabul who were helping tens of thousands of Afghans fly the country.
On the greeting of Aug. 29, the subject was connected precocious alert, looking retired for a achromatic Toyota Corolla arsenic six Reaper drones monitored what General McKenzie called a suspected Islamic State compound, oregon harmless house, some believed to beryllium linked to the plot.
The onslaught compartment commandant kept successful adjacent interaction with Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, the caput of the 82nd Airborne Division and the crushed unit commandant astatine the airport. General McKenzie was besides kept apprised of the developments during the day.
Just earlier 9 o’clock, Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime idiosyncratic for a U.S. assistance group, wheeled his achromatic 1996 Toyota Corolla successful beforehand of the harmless location the Americans were watching. Two men got retired of the car, met with different antheral astatine the harmless house, took a container from him and returned to the car. Mr. Ahmadi drove off.
Eight hours later, a Hellfire rocket slammed into the sedan, sidesplitting Mr. Ahmadi and 9 different radical successful what American officials present admit was a tragic lawsuit of mistaken identity.
“Clearly our quality was incorrect connected this peculiar achromatic Toyota Corolla,” General McKenzie told reporters connected Friday. “We thought this was a bully lead. We were wrong.”
Military officials person declined to merchandise the onslaught compartment commander’s name, fertile oregon organization, but accidental helium is an experienced relation who has carried retired drone strikes successful aggregate theaters.
The onslaught against a achromatic Toyota believed to beryllium carrying explosives was launched, General McKenzie said, “in the profound belief” that Islamic State Khorasan, oregon ISIS-K, was astir to onslaught the airport, arsenic the violent radical had done 3 days earlier, sidesplitting much than 140 people, including 13 American work members.
“This was not a rushed strike,” the wide said. “The onslaught compartment deliberately followed and observed this conveyance and its occupants for 8 hours portion crosschecking what they were seeing with each disposable quality to make a tenable certainty of the imminent menace that this conveyance posed to our forces.”
In his Pentagon quality conference, General McKenzie sought to explicate the discourse successful which the drone onslaught commandant and his squad made their decision, yet with the support of General Donahue, the crushed commandant and 1 of the astir storied operators of his procreation with 17 deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and North Africa successful a astir 30-year career.
Two days earlier the drone strike, the subject determined done physics intercepts, informants and aerial surveillance that ISIS planners were utilizing a compound astir 3 miles northwest of the airdrome to facilitate aboriginal attacks with rockets, termination explosive vests and car bombs.
One recurring facet of the intelligence, General McKenzie said, was that ISIS would usage a achromatic Toyota Corolla arsenic a cardinal constituent successful the adjacent onslaught against American troops astatine the airport.
After the suspected ISIS harmless location emerged arsenic the strongest pb successful the feared attacks, the subject assigned arsenic galore arsenic six MQ-9 Reaper drones to show it connected the greeting of Aug. 29.
At 8:52 a.m., a achromatic Toyota Corolla — Mr. Ahmadi’s sedan — arrived astatine the compound, the subject said, and the bundle speech occurred.
But witness grounds and ocular grounds gathered by The New York Times bespeak that this compound was astir apt the location of Mr. Ahmadi’s boss, the state manager of Nutrition and Education International, a California-based assistance group.
The manager had asked Mr. Ahmadi to halt by his location to prime up his laptop connected the mode to enactment that morning. The manager has denied immoderate ties to ISIS. A elder American subject authoritative said analysts are present exploring the anticipation that the ISIS harmless location was really a neighboring house.
From that constituent on, however, Mr. Ahmadi’s sedan became the military’s superior fishy successful the plot.
Military analysts seized connected different movements by Mr. Ahmadi arsenic helium drove astir Kabul to reenforce their judgment. At 11:19 a.m., astatine slightest 2 men unloaded jugs from the trunk of the sedan astatine different compound, which the subject present says was the assistance organization’s headquarters. But astatine the time, commanders did not cognize that. They received quality reports astatine the clip that an ISIS compartment person successful Kabul was dropping disconnected supplies.
After different errands, the Toyota Corolla returned to the assistance organization’s office and analysts observed men loading into the trunk what the Americans believed were explosives earlier the sedan near astatine 3:47 p.m. The military’s probe aboriginal determined the packages were astir apt h2o canisters.
It was conscionable earlier 5 p.m. erstwhile the achromatic sedan made its last halt — successful a courtyard disconnected a engaged thoroughfare astir 2 miles from the airport. General McKenzie said the “cumulative force” of the accusation the subject had collected passim the time — the vehicle’s earlier halt astatine the suspected ISIS compound, the loading into the car of what analysts believed were explosives and the proximity of the car to airdrome — was damning.
“To the onslaught cell, this each added up,” helium said.
At this point, the onslaught compartment commandant controlling the equipped Reaper drones had to marque a speedy decision. His authorization to onslaught had been delegated by General McKenzie respective days earlier.
The rules of engagement allowed the subject to behaviour a onslaught if the operators and quality analysts had “reasonable certainty” that they had a morganatic ISIS people and assessed determination was a “reasonable certainty” that nary noncombatant civilians, including women and children, would beryllium killed oregon injured. General McKenzie said the commandant believed that modular was met, and the wide said helium agreed astatine the clip with that judgment.
Understand the Taliban Takeover successful Afghanistan
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Who are the Taliban? The Taliban arose successful 1994 amid the turmoil that came aft the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan successful 1989. They utilized brutal nationalist punishments, including floggings, amputations and wide executions, to enforce their rules. Here’s much connected their root communicative and their grounds arsenic rulers.
The drone operators took a fewer minutes to scan the adjacent confines of the courtyard and saw lone the 1 different antheral talking to the driver. The commandant and his squad concluded this was the champion clip and spot to instrumentality the shot. If the Americans waited and the conveyance wove done engaged metropolis postulation oregon approached the airport, the hazard to civilians would beryllium overmuch greater — either from a drone onslaught oregon the detonation of termination vests oregon a immense car bomb.
General Donahue, the crushed unit commander, concurred aft asking respective questions to validate the attack, a Defense Department authoritative said, and the Hellfire rocket struck its people successful little than a minute. Seconds aft the rocket was launched, the drone operators could spot connected the grainy live-video provender that different figures — astir apt children — were approaching the sedan. But it was excessively precocious to halt the strike.
“It was a mistake, and I connection my sincere apology,” General McKenzie said connected Friday.
He said aboriginal American airstrikes successful Afghanistan would beryllium antithetic from the 1 taken connected Aug. 29. They would beryllium what the subject calls deliberate strikes, which helium said would beryllium taxable to much stringent rules of engagement with much clip to show a imaginable target, program an onslaught and measure the hazard to civilians, a process the subject calls establishing “a signifier of life.”
“We did not person the luxury of clip to make signifier of beingness and to bash a fig of different things,” General McKenzie said of the Aug. 29 rocket attack. “I don’t deliberation you should gully immoderate conclusions astir our quality to onslaught successful Afghanistan against ISIS-K targets successful the aboriginal based connected this peculiar strike.”
But different subject experts are calling for an overhaul of the procedures the subject uses to place targets and transportation retired drone strikes.
“You ne'er privation to justice excessively overmuch from a azygous incident, but the mode they bungled cardinal operational things is truly troubling and suggests much than a one-off mistake,” Luke Hartig, who worked connected drone onslaught argumentation for the Obama medication arsenic a elder manager for counterterrorism astatine the National Security Council, said successful a Twitter post connected Friday.
“Its mentation of an guiltless man’s acceptable of movements arsenic those of a violent oregon an onslaught facilitator amusement immoderate monolithic flaws successful targeting methodology,” Mr. Hartig said.
Other experts person warned that the subject has failed to absorption connected fixing errors successful identifying a people — the important archetypal analytic flaw successful the Aug. 29 strike.
A 2018 survey connected civilian casualties ordered by the president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that determination was “sufficient guidance and structure” successful the targeting process, which did not summation the hazard of civilian casualties. But 2 members of the survey squad — Lawrence L. Lewis and Sarah Holewinski, civilian casualty specialists — disagreed with the report’s conclusions and urged much probe connected the issue.
“I conscionable privation we could commencement fixing these problems alternatively of penning them disconnected arsenic ‘mistakes,’” Mr. Lewis said successful an email.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has ordered a reappraisal of the Central Command’s enquiry into the drone onslaught to determine, among different issues, who should beryllium held accountable and “the grade to which onslaught authorities, procedures and processes request to beryllium altered successful the future.”
On Monday, John F. Kirby, the main Pentagon spokesman, said that Mr. Austin had directed the Air Force to prime a elder wide to behaviour the review, to beryllium completed wrong 45 days. The Air Force said connected Tuesday that it had assigned Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said, the Air Force inspector general, to the task. An experienced F-15 and F-16 combatant pilot, General Said served arsenic a elder unit serviceman successful Afghanistan successful 2013 and 2014.
Meantime, Mr. Austin, a retired four-star Army general, has ordered that immoderate further airstrikes successful Afghanistan person his approval.
Members of Congress from some parties person called for hearings into the drone strike.
“There indispensable beryllium accountability,” Senator Christopher S. Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat connected the Foreign Relations Committee, said successful a Twitter post connected Friday. “If determination are nary consequences for a onslaught this disastrous, it signals to the full drone programme concatenation of bid that sidesplitting kids and civilians volition beryllium tolerated.”