The Pentagon on Monday said it was “continuing to assess” whether it killed Afghan civilians in a drone strike on Sunday near Kabul airport that was intended to kill suspected Islamic State members.
Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said U.S. military forces conducted an “unmanned over-the-horizon” airstrike on a vehicle “known to be an imminent ISIS-K threat.”
“This self-defense strike successfully hit the target near Kabul airport. Significant secondary explosions from the targeted vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material,” he said at a Pentagon briefing on Monday.
On reports that the strike killed as many as nine, including six children, Taylor said, “We are aware of reports of civilian casualties. We take these reports very seriously. We are continuing to assess the situation.”
Taliban fighters investigate a damaged car after multiple rockets were fired in Kabul on August 30, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
Members of an Afghan family told the Washington Post that Sunday’s drone strike killed 10 civilians, including several small children. The family was getting out of a car in their driveway when a strike hit a nearby vehicle, according to the report.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the Pentagon is “not in a position to dispute” the report.
“We’re investigating this. I’m not going to get ahead of it. But if we have verifiable information that we did, in fact, take innocent life here, then we’ll be transparent about that,” he said.
Taylor defended the strike, claiming that it prevented a “high-profile attack” against coalition forces and other civilians.
Kirby echoed that sentiment, adding, “When you have what we believe to be an imminent threat, and we believe this to be an imminent threat, we took the action that we believe was the most necessary at the best opportunity to thwart that attack.”
After an alleged ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated his vest outside the Kabul airport, killing 13 American service members and wounding at least 18 more, the U.S. conducted two airstrikes against suspected ISIS targets, one in Nangarhar on Friday and the most recent one on Sunday.
A Taliban fighter stands guard at the site of the August 26 twin suicide bombs, which killed scores of people including 13 US troops, at Kabul airport on August 27, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
In the first strike, the Pentagon claimed it killed an ISIS planner and an ISIS facilitator and wounded an additional ISIS member.
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