It felt like hell itself had opened up, said Ramal Ahmadi, who was watching cartoons with his nephew when an American drone suddenly entered his family’s courtyard, where moments earlier they had organized a celebration. to receive the older brother of the family.
The last thing Ahmadi remembers is the sound of his brother’s car horn announcing his arrival and the children’s screams. He says his boss “isn’t okay” from that day on.
The U.S. drone strike on Sunday killed 10 members of his family, six of them children, Ahmadi said.
U.S. military high command said the drone strike was against a target of the Islamic State group and that it weakened the ability of extremists to continue hampering the final phase of the U.S. withdrawal and evacuation of thousands of people from Afghanistan.
Three days before the drone attack, a member of the Islamic State carried out a suicide bombing at a packed boarding gate at Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. military personnel and 169 Afghan citizens.
Joint Chief of Staff Army General Mark Milley said Wednesday that at least one of those killed in the drone attack was an Islamic State “facilitator.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged reports of civilian casualties on Thursday and said they were being investigated.
Earlier, U.S. officials had pointed out that the subsequent explosions were due to the destruction of the vehicle and that they may have caused more casualties.
However, the enraged Ahmadi family demands evidence, and denies the car was carrying explosives.
“They have to give us answers. Is our blood worth so little that they don’t even give us an explanation?” Ahmadi asked.
Analysts warned that the risk of civilian casualties during drone attacks will increase now that the United States no longer has information on the ground.
In the courtyard of the family home, Emal, another brother of Ahmadi, was recently shuffling through the twisted ruins of the devastated Toyota Corolla.
Inside was a boy’s shirt soaked in blood.
He said some family members, including children, were in the car when he was hit.
He alleged that if there had been a bomb in the vehicle there would have been much more damage to the yard and the house. He pointed to two damage-free gas cylinders in a corner of the courtyard.
“If the car was full of explosives, as the Americans say, why didn’t they explode those cylinders?” Emal asked. He also pointed to a poorly built brick wall near the destroyed vehicle. “How can you keep the wall standing if this car was full of explosives?”
But U.S. officials, including some who watched the attack in real time on video broadcasts, said the United States had been monitoring the car for several hours and saw people carrying explosives in the trunk.
In the Khoja Boghra neighborhood of Kabul lived four Ahmadi brothers and their families, 25 people in total. Roads running through the middle-class neighborhood pass through hidden houses then high walls and gates.
For the Ahmadi, the accusation that their family was involved with the Islamic State group is devastating.
“If they have evidence, I tell them,‘ go ahead, kill me, ’but show me the evidence,” said Emal, Malika’s 3-year-old daughter was among the dead.
His older brother, Zamarai, and his nephew Nasir Haideri – both killed in the attack – had worked for US government allies and had applied for special immigrant visas granted to Afghans with these ties to the US. United States.
Emal, who has also applied for one of the visas, said he had a hard time understanding why the family complex was attacked. “They have such high technology that they can see an ant on the ground, but they couldn’t see a yard full of kids?” He asked.