US will not punish troops for deadly Kabul drone attack: Reports | Drone Strikes News

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has decided against disciplining any members of the United States military for an August drone attack in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, the New York Times and several US news outlets reported, citing unnamed officials.

An internal Pentagon review concluded last month that the August 29 bombing in the Afghan capital did not violate the laws of war and was not caused by misconduct or criminal negligence.

The New York Times first reported on Austin’s decision on Monday, citing an unidentified senior Pentagon official who said the defence secretary had approved a recommendation from two US military commanders not to discipline any personnel involved in the attack.

The Washington Post, NBC News, and The Associated Press later confirmed the decision.

Asked about the investigation during a news briefing on Monday afternoon, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not directly confirm the US media outlets’ reports.

Kirby said last month’s review left it to US commanders to reprimand military officials over the drone attack if necessary, saying that Austin had asked two top generals for recommendations on how to proceed after the bombing.

The generals submitted their recommendations, which did not deal “with issues of accountability”, and Austin approved them, Kirby said, without elaborating.

“I do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the August 29 air strike,” Kirby said.

‘Innocent, helpless children’

The Biden administration acknowledged in September that the drone attack killed civilians in Kabul.

The military initially defended the bombing as a “righteous strike”, insisting that it hit operatives from a group affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) who were planning an imminent attack on Kabul’s airport, where US troops were conducting a large evacuation operation.

Family members of the August 29 drone raid victims told Al Jazeera after the attack that the 10 people killed ranged in age from two to 40 years old.

“They were innocent, helpless children,” Aimal Ahmadi, whose nieces and nephews were killed in the attack, told Al Jazeera at the time.

One of the victims was Aimal’s brother, Zemari Ahmadi, who was driving the vehicle that was bombed. Zemari worked for US-based aid agency Nutrition and Education International (NEI).

The group’s founder and president, Steven Kwon, denounced the Pentagon’s decision not to hold anyone accountable for the bombing as “shocking”.

“How can our military wrongly take the lives of 10 precious Afghan people, and hold no one accountable in any way?” Kwon told the New York Times on Monday.

Kirby told reporters during the briefing that the Pentagon is working with NEI to “expeditiously” move the surviving family members out of Afghanistan and give them compensation payments, without specifying the amount.

Austin apologised for the attack in September, promising a “thorough review” of the incident, while the Biden administration in October also offered payments to relatives of the 10 people killed in the attack.

But last month, US Air Force Inspector General Sami Said said the bombing was an “honest mistake”.

“It’s not criminal conduct, random conduct, negligence,” Said said.

The drone attack came days after a suicide bombing near the airport in Kabul claimed by Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), killed more than 150 Afghans as well as 13 US service members.

The US military has said it airlifted more than 110,000 people out of the Afghan capital in August after the Taliban took over the country. The last American troops withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of that month, ending the US’s 20-year war.

But the Biden administration has said it will continue to use aerial attacks, including drone raids, to deal with security threats in Afghanistan and counter ISKP.

“We conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in multiple countries where we don’t have a permanent military presence,” President Joe Biden said in a speech on August 16.

“If necessary, we will do the same in Afghanistan. We’ve developed counterterrorism, over-the-horizon capability that will allow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on any direct threats to the United States in the region and to act quickly and decisively if needed.”