{"id":7367,"date":"2021-12-14T10:37:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T10:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=7367"},"modified":"2021-12-14T10:37:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T10:37:16","slug":"no-disciplinary-action-against-us-soldiers-involved-in-deadly-kabul-drone-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2021\/12\/no-disciplinary-action-against-us-soldiers-involved-in-deadly-kabul-drone-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"No disciplinary action against US soldiers involved in deadly Kabul drone strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has decided against disciplining any members of the United States military for an August drone attack in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, the New York Times and several US news outlets reported on Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An internal Pentagon review concluded last month that the August 29 bombing in the Afghan capital did not violate the laws of war and was not caused by misconduct or criminal negligence.<\/p>\n

The New York Times first reported on Austin\u2019s decision, citing an unidentified senior Pentagon official who said the defence secretary had approved a recommendation from two US military commanders not to discipline any personnel involved.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post, NBC News, and The Associated Press later confirmed the decision, also citing unidentified US officials.<\/p>\n

Asked about the investigation during a news briefing on Monday afternoon, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not directly confirm the media outlets\u2019 reports.<\/p>\n

Kirby said last month\u2019s review left it to US commanders to reprimand military officials over the drone attack if necessary, and that Austin had asked two top generals for recommendations on how to proceed after the bombing.<\/p>\n

The generals submitted their recommendations, which did not deal \u201cwith issues of accountability\u201d, and Austin approved them, Kirby said, without elaborating further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the August 29 air strike,\u201d the spokesman told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u2018Innocent, helpless children\u2019
\nThe Biden administration acknowledged in September that the drone attack killed civilians.<\/p>\n

The military initially defended the bombing as a \u201crighteous strike\u201d, insisting that it hit operatives from a group affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) who were planning an imminent attack on Kabul\u2019s airport, where US troops were conducting a large evacuation operation.<\/p>\n

Austin personally apologised for the bombing and promised a \u201cthorough review\u201d of the incident.<\/p>\n

But on November 3, US Air Force Inspector General Sami Said said the bombing was an \u201chonest mistake\u201d caused by a series of execution errors, including communication breakdowns. \u201cBut it\u2019s not criminal conduct, random conduct, negligence,\u201d Said said at that time.<\/p>\n

That conclusion was widely criticised by rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which said the findings failed to provide the victims\u2019 families with \u201cmeaningful transparency and accountability for the wrongful killing of their loved ones\u201d.<\/p>\n

Family members of the August 29 drone raid victims told Al Jazeera after the attack that the 10 people killed ranged in age from two to 40 years old. \u201cThey were innocent, helpless children,\u201d Aimal Ahmadi, whose nieces and nephews were killed in the attack, told Al Jazeera at the time.<\/p>\n

One of the victims was Aimal\u2019s brother, Zemari Ahmadi, who was driving the vehicle that was bombed. Zemari worked for US-based aid agency Nutrition and Education International (NEI).<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s founder and president, Steven Kwon, denounced the Pentagon\u2019s decision not to hold any US military personnel responsible for the bombing as \u201cshocking\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can our military wrongly take the lives of 10 precious Afghan people, and hold no one accountable in any way?\u201d Kwon told the New York Times on Monday.<\/p>\n

Push for accountability
\nAl Jazeera\u2019s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said that \u201cit does appear that nobody will be held accountable for that drone strike despite the fact that the Pentagon admitted liability to it\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has said that it cannot release the procedures of the investigations \u201cbecause these are operational matters that may impinge on national security\u201d, Hanna reported on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pentagon has lots of ways in which to drop the curtain over these particular issues. Whether Congress takes it up in any form? Well, that\u2019s something that remains to be seen, but \u2026 that has happened seldom \u2013 if ever \u2013 in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kirby told reporters during the briefing that the Pentagon is working with NEI to \u201cexpeditiously\u201d move the surviving family members out of Afghanistan and give them compensation payments, without specifying the amount.<\/p>\n

That follows an October announcement from the Biden administration that the US would pay relatives of the 10 people killed in the attack, as well as offer relocation support.<\/p>\n

The drone attack came days after a suicide bombing near the airport in Kabul claimed by Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), killed more than 150 Afghans as well as 13 US service members.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has decided against disciplining any members of the United States military for an August drone attack in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, the New York Times and several US news outlets reported on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17,18,5,8,6,7],"tags":[12,166,187,293],"class_list":["post-7367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-report","category-security_","category-peace","category-politics_","category-governance","category-afghanistan","category-headline","tag-afghanistan","tag-kabul","tag-us","tag-drone"],"views":541,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}