With ongoing threats of another attack, the US strike cell believed it was tracking an ISIS-K member from a terrorist hideout as he made his way through the city over the course of eight hours. Only three days earlier, an ISIS-K suicide bomber had killed 13 US service members and dozens of Afghans at Abbey Gate, the key entry point to the airport. The Pentagon defended the strike at first, claiming it had killed an ISIS-K operative planning an imminent attack on US forces during the final days of the evacuation and withdrawal from Afghanistan. The newly released videos show the view from above Kabul as the military tracked a white Toyota Corolla through parts of the city, believing that it was an ISIS-K car laden with explosives and building a case for targeting it with a preemptive strike. The Trump administration saw some of those rules abandoned, seeking to tear down red tape standing in the way of carrying out certain strikes.The US military released videos Wednesday of the botched August 29 drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children. Under the Obama administration, the use of targeted strikes with drones against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State terror group expanded dramatically, while new rules were also ushered in to promote accountability and preserve civilian life. government has carried out drone strikes in a number of countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. drone strikes, he said, have long been a grim reality of the U.S.'s decadeslong war in Afghanistan. Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesĬivilian casualties in U.S. A relative throws himself on Farzad's casket. In a phone interview on Monday, Daniel Balson, Amnesty International USA's advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia, said he was not surprised by the tragedy brought to Ahmadi's family. They must compensate us because we lost our family, we lost our house and property.' He said the family had planned to hold a small wedding this week, with Naser hopeful that he would be able to get some of the family onto an evacuation flight to the U.S. Naser had been just days away from marrying Samia Ahmadi, 21, Zemari's daughter, Yousuf, said. Residents and family members gather next to a damaged vehicle a day after the drone strike. military, was also killed in the blast, Ramin Yousuf, a cousin of Zemari and Ahmadi's, told NBC News on Tuesday. 'He was well-respected by his colleagues and compassionate towards the poor and needy.'Ībdul Naser Ahmadi, a colleague and friend of six years to Zemari, said he was devastated, and described Ahmadi as 'a good man with good ethics.'Īhmad Naser, a former Afghan Army officer and contractor with the U.S. 'We are all very saddened and shocked by his sudden death,' Kwon said. Just a day before his death, he had been helping to prepare and deliver soy-based meals to women and children at refugee camps in Kabul, Steven Kwon, president of NEI, told NBC News in an email. Zemari was a technical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a nonprofit working to address malnutrition based in Pasadena, California. Malika and two other toddlers were the youngest family members killed, along with Ahmadi's nephews Arwin, 7, and Benyamin, 6, and Zemari's two other sons, Zamir, 20, and Faisal, 16, Ahmadi said. takes such reports 'very, very seriously.' 'Reports of civilian casualties' In a Monday briefing, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that Washington was 'not in a position to dispute' reports that its drone strike against its ISIS-K target caused civilian casualties, and that the U.S. Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Ramal Ahmadi is supported by family members during a mass funeral in Kabul on Monday. We struck ISIS-K remotely, days after they murdered 13 of our service members and dozens of innocent Afghans,' the president said during a speech Tuesday at the White House defending his decision to pull troops from Afghanistan. 'We’ve shown that capacity just in the last week. The explosion, which came amid the United States' chaotic exit from its 20-year engagement in Afghanistan, will increase the pressure on President Joe Biden as his administration tries to deal with terror threats from outside of Afghanistan via 'over-the-horizon' strikes and seeks retaliation for last Thursday's bombing. military personnel and more than 110 Afghans.ĭownload the NBC News app for breaking news and politics Sunday's drone strike was launched after the Islamic State Khorasan extremist group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport last week that killed 13 U.S.

Us drone strike casualties