The Pentagon reviews its position on a drone strike that killed several civilians in Afghanistan, announcing that an internal review revealed that the raid only killed civilians, not an Islamic State extremist as initially believed. “The attack was a tragic mistake,” General Frank McKenzie, head of the US Central Command, told a Pentagon press conference.
Afghanistan, an Isis-K terrorist killed with a drone. First US retaliation
by our correspondent Anna Lombardi
A few days after the August 29 raid, the Pentagon said it had acted correctly, despite the deaths of several civilians, including children. The media raised doubts, disputing the version of events, reporting that the driver of the targeted vehicle was an employee of a US NGO and citing the lack of evidence to support the Pentagon’s claims that the vehicle contained explosives. McKenzie said the vehicle was hit “in the honest belief” that it posed an imminent threat. “I am now certain that at least 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed by that attack,” he said, “and we now believe it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with Isis-K. “, with a reference to Isis Khorasan, an Afghan ally of the Islamic State terrorist group.
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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has apologized for the mistake. “I offer my deepest condolences to the surviving relatives of those who have been killed,” he said acknowledging that the man targeted was “just an innocent victim, like the others tragically killed”. “We apologize, and we will work to learn from this horrible mistake,” he added. “No army works as hard as ours to avoid civilian casualties. When we have reason to believe we have taken innocent lives, we investigate and, if that’s true, we admit it.”
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