Kabul drone attack: US defenders denounce “impunity, secrecy” | Drone Attacks News

Washington, DC – The U.S. is sending a “dangerous and misleading message” that no U.S. military has been responsible for a drone attack in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, human rights defenders said.

Calls for accountability for the deadly bombing of August 29 have risen on Tuesday since U.S. media first reported U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. he accepted a recommendation not to punish military members from high commanders.

Rights groups called for more support from President Joe Biden’s administration Survivors of the attack on the Afghan capital To relocate to the US.

The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a US-based Nutrition and Education International (NEI) support center. nine members of his family.

“I have been begging for months to evacuate relatives and NEI staff directly affected by the U.S. government because their security situation is very serious,” NEI founder and president Steven Kwon said in a statement.

“When the Pentagon clears its accounts, it sends a dangerous and misleading message that its actions were somehow justified, increasing security risks and making evacuation even more urgent.”

‘Accounts Accounts’

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Austin had accepted the recommendations of two major generals in the bombing of Kabul, and that they did not include “liability issues.”

“I don’t anticipate that there will be any personal liability issues regarding the August 29 airstrike,” Kirby told reporters. The Pentagon did not respond to Tuesday’s request for comment on Al Jazeera.

But Kirby’s remarks have been confirmed by earlier reports New York Times and other U.S. news reports that unidentified U.S. military officials said no one would be punished for the attack.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concern over the Pentagon’s decision, urging Congress to “oversee” the Department of Defense by “reviewing 20-year practices that have resulted in civilian deaths or injuries.”

Sarah Holewinski, the group’s Washington director, said the lack of responsibility for the dead civilians is a “message of impunity and secrecy” that undermines credibility in the U.S. world, days after President Joe Biden finished a global one. “Summit for Democracy”.

“After 20 years of predictions, Congress must consider reforms to the military justice system and ask the Pentagon for answers as to why past policy and practice reviews have not led to specific changes,” Holewinski said in a statement.

U.S. drone attacks

The U.S. regularly began using drone strikes at alleged al-Qaeda fighters shortly after Sept. 11.

But airstrikes were not limited to areas where the U.S. military was directly engaged in military service. The attacks hit people in Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Pakistan, among others, as the U.S. embarked on an unrestricted path.war on terror“.

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan became increasingly popular, the Obama administration increasingly relied on drones as part of its national security policy, instead of the regular war.

“As al-Qaeda dispersed and sank underground, metastasizing a complex network of affiliates, agents, bedroom cells, and sympathizers connected to the Internet and telephone burners, our national security agencies were challenged to build new, more focused and unusual forms of war.” in his memory of former President Barack Obama 2020 A Promise Land.

The tactic, which complicates the accounts of civilian deaths, quickly sparked concern among human rights defenders. London Investigative Journalism Office estimates Since 2004, 16,900 civilians have been killed, including hundreds of children, in U.S. drone strikes.

This month, a coalition of advocacy groups called Austin, the Secretary of Defense, has been blamed for the U.S. attack on civilian attacks, with the Department of Defense exploding “a record of civilian damage over the last 20 years” and “failure to prioritize civilian protection.”

‘Direct strike’

Against this backdrop, activists say the Pentagon finally acknowledged that the August 29 drone attack in the U.S. killed civilians. media reports and research he showed that this had happened.

U.S. military leaders initially insisted the attacks were aimed at ISIL (ISIS) agents at Kabul airport, where U.S. troops were joining forces. mass evacuation operation. “At the moment, we believe that the procedures have been properly followed and that the strike was a direct one,” US Secretary-General Mark Milley told reporters on September 1.

By then, several media outlets had reported that the bombing had killed an innocent Afghan family. “The children were innocent and disabled,” said Aimal Ahmadi, who killed his nephews in the attack. he told Al Jazeera the day after the bombing.

Kirby said on Monday that the US administration was working with Kwon to get the surviving Ahmadi family members out of Afghanistan “quickly” and provide compensation. He had the Pentagon announced he intended to make “free” payments to the victims when he confessed to killing civilians in the bombing in September.

But an internal review of the Pentagon it ended last month despite the “unfortunate mistake” of the bombing, it did not rise to criminal misconduct or negligence.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has accepted a high-ranking commander’s recommendation not to punish the military for a drone attack, U.S. media reported this week. [Patrick Semansky/AP Photo]

That review remains unclear, but on Nov. 3, U.S. Air Force Inspector General Sami Said, who led the investigation, said he had interviewed dozens of people before making his assessment.

“Investigations have not found any violations, including the law of war,” Said told reporters. “He found execution errors … which unfortunately resulted in civilian deaths combined with biases of assertion and communication breakdowns.”

Larry Lewis, a former Pentagon and State Department adviser to reduce civilian casualties, said the Kabul drone attack was not just a tragic mistake in special situations, but part of a “model” of the problems that lead to civilian deaths.

Lewis, who currently works at the CNA-based research organization in Washington, DC, said reprimanding individual officials can ensure responsibility for the specific bombing and also “promote change.”

“I also think we can’t afford to lose a bigger picture of these officials working in a bigger system [has] systemic problems that have never been solved, ”Lewis told Al Jazeera.

‘Pirots can’t put out fires’

The August 29 drone attack came days later a suicide bomber Outside the Kabul airport claimed by the Islamic State in Khorasan province, ISKP (ISIS-K) killed more than 150 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing the NEI, expressed frustration with the results of the Pentagon investigation on Tuesday.

“The NEI and surviving relatives have repeatedly called for significant transparency and accountability for the wrongful killing of their loved ones, and they remain disappointed,” ACLU National Security Project Director Hina Shamsi said in a statement.

“We have asked the Pentagon to evacuate the families of those who are at risk as a result of the actions of the US government and the staff of the NEI, but they have not yet seen any specific action.”

Lawyers have also condemned the US administration’s stated plan to continue using drones against ISKP and other potential threats in Afghanistan.

Arash Azizzada, one of the founders of Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, an Afghan-American advocacy group, has called for an end to all U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan. “We have seen that this failed policy threatens lives, destroys the people and allows for more violence in the country,” Azizzada told Al Jazeera in a telephone interview in October.

Azizzada also called for an international investigation into US military behavior in Afghanistan, including the August drone strike. “The United States cannot hold the US accountable,” Azizzada said.

“We’ve seen the United States say,‘ We’re going to look at that; we’ll see if that’s done right. ‘ But even arsonists can’t put out the fire in this case. “