The Afghan who died in an attack on American drones last month was an enthusiastic and beloved employee of an American humanitarian organization, say his colleagues, which contrasts sharply with the claims of the US military. ‘Pentagon that was Islamic. Militant state group about to carry out an attack on American troops.
There are growing indications that the U.S. military may have targeted the wrong man in the Aug. 29 attack in Kabul, with devastating consequences, killing seven children and two adults in the family.
The Pentagon says it is investigating the attack further, but has no way to do so on the ground in Afghanistan after the Taliban took possession, severely limiting its ability to gather evidence.
Family stories, documents from colleagues seen by The Associated Press and the scene at the family home, where Zemerai Ahmadi’s car was hit by a Hellfire missile just as he was entering the road. entrance, seem to drastically contradict the stories of the EE. UU. military.
Instead, they paint the image of a family that had worked for Americans and was trying to get visas for the United States, fearing for their lives under the Taliban.
In the house, the shattered and incinerated Toyota Corolla remains in the driveway. But there are no signs of large secondary explosions that, according to the Pentagon, were caused by explosives hidden in the trunk of the car. In the walled and narrow enclosure, the house is not damaged except by the broken glass, even a poorly constructed wooden balcony remains in place. A brick wall immediately adjacent to the car remains intact. Trees and foliage near the car do not burn or break.
The family wants the United States to hear their version of events and see the facts on the ground.
“We just want them to come here. Look what they did. Tell us. Give us the proof,” Emal Ahmadi, Zemerai’s younger brother, said of the U.S. military. Almost crying, she opened a photo on her phone of her 3-year-old daughter, Malika, in her favorite dress. Another photo showed his charred remains after he died in the attack.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that he did not know if the white man in the strike was an ISIS operative or a humanitarian worker. “I don’t know because we’re reviewing it,” he said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
The attack took place in the last days of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, when U.S. troops were conducting evacuations at Kabul airport. Just days earlier, a suicide ISIS terrorist at the airport killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel.
The Pentagon says the attack prevented another ISIS attack at the airport. Authorities said the U.S. military had been watching the car for hours while driving and saw people carrying explosives in the back. Days later, amid reports of the murdered children, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a “fair blow” and said that “at least one of the people who died he was an ISIS facilitator, “using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
The United States acknowledged reports of civilian casualties and said they may have been caused by secondary explosions. The family said that when Zemerai, 37, alone in his car, stopped at the house, he blew his horn. His 11-year-old son ran out, and Zemerai let the boy in and drive the car to the driveway. The other children ran out to watch, and the missile cremated the act, killing seven children and an adult son and nephew of Zemerai.
“That was my last memory, the sound of his horn,” said another of Zemerai’s brothers, Romal Ahmadi, who was inside the house at the time. Her three children, ages two to seven, died.
Zemerai worked for 15 years for Nutrition & Education International, a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to combating malnutrition in Afghanistan. Romal also worked briefly for NEI.
Just days before the strike, Zemerai and Romal applied for special visas for the United States for those who had worked with American companies. His brother, Emal, and the nephew who was killed, Ahmad Nasser Haideri, had also applied for special visas because of his work for the U.S. Army.
Emal provided the AP with documents that included his visa applications, letters of recommendation and even a medal that Haideri had received for his service with a special elite force trained in the United States. Haideri also had a letter of reference from the Security Solutions Group of several US-based countries. UU., Where he worked as a contractor, and described it as “an important part of our commitment to providing the best loyal service to the US Special Forces. UU.”
“He was an excellent employee,” firm president Timothy Williams, who wrote the letter of reference, told the AP. “I’m not going to change that just because of the incident that happened. I’m going to be behind my boys.”
Zemerai’s colleagues at NEI described him as a talented worker who paved the way from a handyman to a skilled engineer and an essential employee.
Last year, when the company was unable to pay employees the full salary due to the coronavirus pandemic, employees had the opportunity to leave their jobs to work better paid elsewhere.
But Ahmadi refused and said, “I am NEI. From start to finish, until we achieve our goal,” the company’s founder and president, Steven Kwon, told the AP.
His colleagues remembered him as an affectionate father and enthusiastic dancer who maintained an optimistic spirit amid the chaos of his surroundings and hurried to comfort those around him with a joke. She had grown up in poverty in Kabul and held “that heart for the poor,” said a co-worker who asked to be identified only as Sonia for security reasons.
“He was definitely the best of us. Absolutely,” he said.
He also always supported the company’s efforts to hire more women and create programs for women, which is one of the many reasons his colleagues said the suggestion that he was connected to any kind of extremism it seems absurd.
“Everything we hear about him is so disturbing and absurd because he loved his people so much,” Sonia said. “How would you turn around overnight and start wanting to kill your own people? It makes absolutely no sense at all.”
It seems unlikely that the United States will send anyone to the Ahmadi house to investigate. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he “knows of no choice but to put investigators on the ground in Kabul.” The U.S. Central Command said it would rely on “other means,” without giving further details, but apparently referring to the surveillance video and the interceptions that led to the attack.
The family, afflicted and furious, still want refuge in the United States. In addition to their existing concerns about their previous work with the United States, they now fear that the new Taliban rulers will suspect that they are ISIS. The Islamic State group is a violent rival of the Taliban.
“The United States has accused us. They haven’t cleared our name and they don’t even talk to us, and now the suspicion is on us,” Emal said. “We’re angry, but we don’t know what to do. For our safety we would go to the United States, but it must be all of our families, not just me.”
To their dismay, Ahmadi’s colleagues say no one from the Biden administration has contacted them about the facts.
“Just talk to us because our teams are terrified now,” Sonia said. “I mean, in addition to fearing the Taliban and ISIS, they now fear the U.S. government even more.”