Drone strike targeting Islamic State killed 10 civilians, family says - The Washington Post

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KABUL — A U.S. drone strike targeting the Islamic State killed 10 civilians in Kabul, including several small children, family members told The Washington Post on Monday.

The dead were all from a single extended family who were exiting a car in their modest driveway when the strike hit a nearby vehicle, said Abdul Matin Azizi, a neighbor who saw the attack. Azizi, 20, said the explosion occurred as the family returned home Sunday afternoon around 4:30 p.m.

Azizi said he ran next door to help and found a gruesome scene, the air thick with smoke. “The bodies were covered in blood and shrapnel, and some of the dead children were still inside the car,” he said.

U.S. Central Command said the strike Sunday destroyed an Islamic State car bomb that posed an “imminent” threat to Kabul’s airport. It acknowledged reports of civilian casualties but did not release specifics. The attack is the second U.S. drone strike on Afghanistan in response to a suicide bombing and gunfire attack outside Kabul’s airport on Thursday.

A U.S. drone strike targeting the Islamic State on Aug. 29, reportedly killed 10 civilians in Kabul including several small children. (The Washington Post)

Mourners gathered at a neighbor’s home under the shade of a grape arbor. A woman, her face raw from sobbing, approached the garden’s entrance in hysterics.

“I lost my daughter, I lost my heart,” she screamed, calling out to God before a group of women surrounded her, trying to calm her down. Suma Ahmadi’s 2-year-old daughter and three of her brothers were killed in the explosion, said Ahmad Fayaz, a relative.

Growing faint and unable to speak, Ahmadi was helped back into the shade. Fayaz said she was in hysterics all night, unable to sleep or eat. In total, eight children and young adults were killed in the attack, Fayaz said.

Of the 10 civilians killed, eight were age 18 and under, according to lists from family members obtained by The Washington Post. Zamarai Ahmadi, 45, a charity worker, and three of his sons were among those killed, according to one of his surviving sons, 22-year-old Samim Ahmadi.

The United States “always says they are killing [the Islamic State], al-Qaeda or the Taliban, but they always attack civilian people and children,” Fayaz said. “I don’t think they are good people.”

The Taliban condemned the attack and announced it is investigating allegations of civilian casualties.

U.S. Central Command said it is launching its own investigation. “We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul,” it said in a statement Sunday. “It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further. We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life.”

The suicide bombing outside Kabul airport Thursday was claimed by the Islamic State. The attack killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 170 civilians trying to flee the country.

“The Americans said the airstrike killed Daesh members,” Azizi, the neighbor, said angrily, using a term for the Islamic State. “Where is Daesh here? Were these children Daesh?”

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