(Headline USA) The Pentagon has declassified and publicly released video footage of a U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians in the final hours of a chaotic American withdrawal that ended a 20-year war in Afghanistan.
The man targeted in the attack was Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for Nutrition and Education International, a U.S.-based aid organization. Among those killed were seven of his children.
The videos include about 25 minutes of footage from what the Times reported were two MQ-9 Reaper drones, showing the scene of the strike prior to, during and after a missile struck a civilian car in a courtyard on a residential street. Indistinct images show individuals moving in or near the attack zone.
The New York Times obtained the footage through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against U.S. Central Command, which then posted the imagery to its website.
It marks the first public release of video footage of the Aug. 29 strike, which the Pentagon initially defended but later called a tragic mistake.
Nonetheless, internal reviews cleared the department of any wrongdoing and, to date, no one has been held accountable for the devastating intelligence failure, only days after an ISIS bombing at the Kabul airport killed 13 US servicemembers and inflicted serious civilian casualties, injuring more than 160 Afghan allies as they desperately sough to flee the Taliban.
The drone strike three days later was celebrated as retaliation against the bombers, and the Biden administration insisted as much until media reports came out undermining the narrative.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
