Washington, Sep 18: Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of US Central Command, admitted on Friday that a US drone strike in late August in Kabul killed as many as 10 civilians, including 7 children.
“Having thoroughly reviewed the findings of the investigation and the supporting analysis by interagency partners, I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike,” McKenzie told reporters during a Pentagon press briefing.
“We now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with IS-K, or were a direct threat to US forces,” Xinhua news quoted him as saying.
The general admitted the deadly strike was a mistake.
“As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for this strike and this tragic outcome.”
The US Central Command said on August 29 that it launched a drone strike on a vehicle in Kabul, which it claimed had eliminated an “imminent” threat, posed by IS-K, an Afghanistan-based offshoot of the Islamic State, to the Hamid Karzai International Airport, where evacuations of US service members and personnel were underway. Agencies
