11/25/2023 0 Comments Us drone strike kills children![]() Kenneth F. McKenzie, took personal responsibility for the error. In a rare acknowledgment of responsibility, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conceded that Zemari had no connection to ISIS-K and that he and his family were all innocent victims of a “horrible mistake.” Later, then-commander of U.S. The Defense Department did not admit to its mistake until more than two weeks later, after video reconstruction of the strike raised serious questions about its version of events. officials defended the action, which a Pentagon official called “ a righteous strike.” In the following days, as family members, journalists, and Zemari’s employer shared evidence that the drone strike had targeted the wrong person, U.S. officials announced that they had successfully thwarted an attack but made no mention of civilian casualties, even as it later emerged that intelligence analysts had observed children on the scene moments beforehand. The California-based Nutrition & Education International, Zemari’s employer, did not respond to a request for comment. An American MQ-9 Reaper drone shot a Hellfire missile at his car just as Zemari arrived home and as a group of children from his family rushed outside to greet him. The officials flagged his “erratic route” and concluded that the car contained explosives, according to an internal review obtained by the New York Times earlier this year. intelligence officials, believing that a second attack near the airport was imminent, tracked his movements for hours. Zemari Ahmadi, an electrical engineer working for a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization and the primary breadwinner for his extended family, had been driving colleagues to work and unloading water canisters from his white Toyota Corolla all day, on August 29, 2021, as U.S. “I don’t understand why it’s taking this long,” she added, referring to the condolence payments “Do they think that all they had to do was relocate the family and that’s it? That that’s where their responsibility ends?” The country that is responsible for the death of their children has helped them out by getting them here, but they do not feel fully supported,” Bahaduri told The Intercept. “There’s a lot of hurt and a lot of anger and a lot of frustration. withdrawal from Afghanistan to support the thousands of refugees resettling in the U.S., said the Ahmadi family’s trauma compounds the many challenges facing the 76,000 Afghans who have arrived in the U.S. Zuhal Bahaduri, executive director of the 5ive Pillars Organization, an Afghan American-led group that was established following the U.S. For that reason, a community volunteer has launched a fundraiser to help them meet their basic needs while our confidential discussions with the U.S. “Our clients arrived in the United States penniless, after suffering unimaginable losses. “Now that Emal and Romal Ahmadi’s families have been resettled in the United States, we look forward to productive discussions with the Department of Defense regarding the compensation promised to them,” the lawyers wrote in a statement. government but declined to further discuss the case. John Gurley, Sylvia Costelloe, and Joanna Naples-Mitchell, attorneys representing the Ahmadi brothers, said they are having ongoing discussions with the U.S. ![]() The Pentagon declined to comment, citing the family’s privacy. “It’s stressful, and they didn’t ask for any of this, to have to leave their country and come to a different country and start over.” “They are living day to day in a very stressful environment of bills, and making sure they have their rent, and do they have enough food, and why did the utility bill go up this month?” Melissa Walton, who regularly visits members of the family, told The Intercept. One volunteer recently started a fundraiser to help cover some family members’ living costs while they wait for the U.S. government, according to volunteers and community groups that have assisted them. officials, some of those survivors made it to California last year, including two of the aid worker’s brothers, Emal and Romal Ahmadi, and their families.Īs they struggle to adapt to life in a new country, however, they feel abandoned by the U.S. made a public commitment to condolence payments and pledged to help survivors relocate. Weeks after the attack, which targeted an aid worker whom intelligence officials had mistaken for someone else, the U.S. government has yet to make good on a pledge to compensate surviving relatives. killed 10 members of an Afghan family, including seven children, in a drone strike that prompted a rare apology from the Pentagon, the U.S.
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