U.S (Washington Insider Magazine) -On August 29, the ten civilians were victims of a mistaken US drone strike, with seven of the fatalities being children.
This drone strike came after the US military made the mistake of thinking one of the civilians was a member of ISIS, handling explosives around a vehicle.
On Friday October 15, a statement was released by The Pentagon revealing that an undisclosed sum of money had been offered to the family of the victims, while the US had also offered to relocate them to America should they so desire.
John Kirby, the Pentagon Press Secretary, reported that these offers had been made to an aid organization on Thursday October 14 during a meeting. The organization was the employer of Zemari Ahmadi, the man the United States targeted as they falsely believed him to be a member of ISIS-K.
Ahmadi’s car was hit with a US drone as the military believed he was filling it was boxes of explosives. These boxes turned out to be water containers and the drone strike resulted in ten civilian Afghan fatalities, including Ahmadi himself.
Kirby said: “Dr. Kahl reiterated Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s commitment to the families, including offering ex gratia condolence payments.”
Immediately after the strike, Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Gen. Mark Milley, labelled the drone attack as a ‘righteous strike’. However, weeks after the event, the United States backtracked and acknowledged the innocent deaths of Ahmadi and nine other civilians.
Although it took the US weeks to admit the wrongdoing, Head of US Central Command, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie revealed they actually learned of the fatal mistake just hours after the drone strike.
