The Pentagon named on Tuesday the Air Force inspector general to review the investigation that found the U.S.'s August 29 drone strike...
The Pentagon named on Tuesday the Air Force inspector general to review the investigation that found the U.S.'s August 29 drone strike killed 10 innocent Afghan civilians, including seven children – and not an Islamic State fighter.
Lieutenant General Sami Said will conduct a review of the U.S. Central Command’s probe of the strike in Kabul to consider whether any disciplinary action at the military-level is warranted.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Air Force to appoint an officer to review the investigation examining in detail the chronology of events leading to the tragedy.
The main findings of that probe of the strike were that only Afghan civilians were killed and that the U.S. military had been mistaken in its belief that the white Toyota Corolla it tracked for hours and then struck with a Hellfire missile was a valid threat.
Discrepancies between the military's initial claims about the strike and findings on the ground quickly emerged.
Reports emerged that the driver of the targeted vehicle was a longtime employee at a U.S. humanitarian organization.
There were no signs of a large secondary blast, despite the Pentagon's assertion that the vehicle contained explosives.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is ordering Said to review the investigation that found three innocent Afghan adults and seven children were killed in a U.S. drone strike on August 29 and not an ISIS fighter
Family members of the victims of the drone strike stand near the wreckage at their home on September 19 – the day after the U.S. apologized for mistakenly attacking civilians in Kabul
The head of Central Command, General Frank McKenzie, announced Friday that his investigation had determined that the vehicle targeted by the drone had initially been spotted at a known Islamic State compound in Kabul and was tracked by U.S. intelligence for eight hours.
McKenzie said the intelligence about the vehicle turned out to be tragically mistaken.
The military initially asserted that at least one Islamic State fighter had been killed in the vehicle, but McKenzie´s investigation found that only innocent civilians were killed. McKenzie took blame for the mistake and apologized.
'This particular strike certainly was a terrible mistake and we certainly regret that, and I´ve been very clear that we take full responsibility for it,' he told a Pentagon news conference.
On Saturday, it was revealed that the CIA issued a warning that children may be at the scene of the botched US drone strike in Kabul just seconds before the missile hit the car killing 10 innocent civilians.
Kirby said the Air Force review will study the thoroughness of Central Command's investigation and recommend whether anyone involved should be held accountable.
'If there is accountability to be held, the decisions about who and what would be done would be a separate consideration,' Kirby said, adding that the review should be completed within 45 days of appointment of a reviewing officer.
Ten innocent civilians - all members of the same family - were killed in the August 29 U.S. drone strike
Austin on Friday alluded to his request for a review, saying in a written statement that he wanted to be sure that Central Command had considered 'all available context and information' about the mistaken attack and that accountability be fully considered.
The decision to require a review is a reflection of the seriousness of the mistakes made in the final hours of the U.S. military withdrawal from Kabul, which included a hurried evacuation of more than 120,000 Afghans, Americans and others. The evacuation was carried out under the threat of attack by the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate, which had conducted a deadly suicide bombing outside the airport three days before the mistaken drone strike.
The White House revealed on Monday that President Joe Biden also wants a 'thorough' government investigation of the US drone strike that killed an Afghan aide worker and his family members.
Biden's Press Secretary Jen Psaki fielded multiple questions about the strike after the Pentagon confirmed at a Friday briefing it had not taken out an ISIS target as initially claimed.
'So as a human being, as a president, as somebody who has overseen loss in a variety of scenarios, both as a leader and personally, it is his reaction - it's a tragedy. And every loss of life is a tragedy,' Psaki said at her Monday briefing.
'And he supports the effort to move this forward as soon as possible and have a thorough investigation.'
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