Afghan Family Says Errant U.S. Missile Killed 10, Including 7 Children
Relatives, friends and colleagues of Zemari Ahmadi angrily dismissed any suggestion he had ties to ISIS-K. The U.S. military is investigating.
Aug. 30, 2021
"KABUL — Zemari Ahmadi was coming home Sunday evening, having dropped off colleagues from the local office of an American aid group where he worked, relatives and colleagues said in interviews Monday.
As he pulled into the narrow street where he lived with his three brothers and their families, many of their children, seeing his white Toyota Corolla, rushed out to greet him, family members said. Some clambered onto the car in the street, one jumped in while others gathered in the narrow courtyard of the compound as he pulled in.
It was then, friends and family say, that the vehicle was hit with a missile which they believe was fired by an American drone, blowing out doors and windows in the courtyard, spraying shrapnel, and killing 10 people, seven of them children.
Mr. Ahmadi’s daughter, Samia Ahmadi, 21, was in a room adjoining the courtyard when she was struck by the blast wave. “At first I thought it was the Taliban,” she said.
The Times could not independently verify whether an American missile strike killed Mr. Ahmadi and the others. Nor was it clear whether Mr. Ahmadi’s car was the Americans’ actual target.
The Pentagon acknowledged the possibility that Afghan civilians had been killed in the drone strike, but suggested that any civilian deaths had resulted from the detonation of explosives in the vehicle that was targeted.
“We’re not in a position to dispute it,” John F. Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said Monday about reports of civilian casualties. He repeated earlier Pentagon statements that the military was investigating a strike on a vehicle two miles from Hamid Karzai International Airport. But it was unclear whether this was the same as the incident involving Mr. Ahmadi’s vehicle.
In a news conference on Monday in Washington, Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, did not address the circumstances surrounding the drone strike except to say that it dealt ISIS Khorasan a crushing blow when the group was hoping to deliver one last attack before the U.S. withdrawal.
The giant American airlift that carried tens of thousands of Afghans to safety came to an end on Monday, the Pentagon announced, but left tens of thousands more behind. And as the last planes departed, taking the last American troops with them, the American military presence in Afghanistan vanished after 20 harrowing years.
The attack on Sunday was carried out in a tense atmosphere, following the suicide bombing at the airport that killed at least 170 civilians and 13 U.S. service members.
With the Biden administration coming under withering criticism for its planning and execution of the evacuation of tens of thousands of American citizens and Afghans, the pressure to avoid a second attack was intense. The U.S. military said Saturday that it had killed the planner of that bombing in a different drone strike on Friday night.
Family members who witnessed the explosion said that Mr. Ahmadi and several of the children were killed inside his car; others were fatally wounded in rooms alongside the courtyard. The family’s SUV, parked next to the Corolla in the tight confines of the courtyard, was set on fire, while smoke filled the house.
Ms. Ahmadi, the driver’s daughter, staggered outside, choking, and saw the dismembered bodies of her siblings and relatives. “I saw the whole scene,” she said."
Afghan Family Says U.S. Missile Killed 10, Including 7 Children - The New York Times
What happens in Kabul, stays in Kabul.
A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.
Didn't you see the vid with at least one pallet of 100 dollar bills left behind? That's why I wondered why they didn't burn it. Unless it's fake news of course.
As for the weapons and equipment, I was referring to the Afghan army's, I had no doubt the US would neutralise what they left behind, but apparently the local army didn't.
Last edited by Farang Ky Ay; 01-09-2021 at 11:06 PM.
Afghan economy in chaos, humanitarian crisis
Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers struggled to keep the country functioning on Wednesday after the final withdrawal of U.S. forces, with foreign donors alarmed about an impending humanitarian crisis.
Two weeks since the Taliban’s sweep into Kabul brought a chaotic end to 20 years of warfare, the Islamist militants have yet to name a new government or reveal how they intend to rule.
In an administrative vacuum, prices have soared and crowds have gathered at banks to withdraw cash.
Heavily armed fighters have imposed control on the capital, but Taliban officials were grappling with keeping hospitals and government machinery running following the end of a huge airlift of foreigners and Afghans who had helped Western forces.
The new, Taliban-appointed central bank head has sought to reassure banks the group wants a fully functioning financial system, but has so far given little detail on how it will supply funds for it, bankers familiar with the matter said.
Qatar’s Al Jazeera television reported that Qatari technical experts had arrived at the Taliban’s request to discuss resuming operations at Kabul airport, currently inoperable.
The foreign minister of neighbouring Pakistan, which has close ties to the Taliban, said he expected Afghanistan to have a new “consensus government” within days.
In Washington, where the end of America’s longest war has sparked the biggest crisis of President Joe Biden’s administration, Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland said the United States is looking at all possible options and routes to continue to help Americans and legal permanent residents leave Afghanistan.
Washington would keep having conversations with the Taliban that serve U.S. interests, she told reporters, adding the United States would look at how it could give aid to Afghanistan without benefiting any government that it forms.
People fearful of life under Taliban rule rushed to the borders.
In Panjshir province, members of local militias and remnants of former military units were still holding out under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud. Senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Motaqi called on them to put down weapons and negotiate.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is home for all Afghans,” he said in a speech.
The Taliban have declared an amnesty for all Afghans who worked with foreign forces during the war that started when they were ousted from power in 2001 over their refusal to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Taliban leaders have called on Afghans to return home and help rebuild. They have promised to protect human rights in an effort to present a more moderate face than their first government, which enforced a strict version of sharia law, including banning women from education and employment.
PRICES SOAR
But their more immediate concern is staving off economic collapse. Afghanistan desperately needs money, and the Taliban are unlikely to get swift access to the roughly $10 billion in assets mostly held abroad by the Afghan central bank.
The Taliban have ordered banks to reopen, but strict weekly limits on withdrawals have been imposed.
The acting central bank governor, Haji Mohammad Idris, met members of the Afghanistan Banks Association and other financiers this week, said two bankers who attended the meeting. The militant group was working to find solutions for liquidity and rising inflation, they quoted Idris as saying.
“They were very charming and asked banks what their concerns were,” said one of the bankers who requested anonymity.
Long lines have formed at banks, the currency is sinking, inflation is rising and many offices and shops remain shut.
“Everything is expensive now, prices are going up every day,” said Kabul resident Zelgai.
Outside the capital, humanitarian organizations have warned of impending catastrophe as severe drought has hit farmers and forced thousands of rural poor to seek shelter in the cities. But foreign donors are unsure about whom to speak to.
Taliban officials have said the problems will ease once a new government is in place, and have urged other countries to maintain economic relations.
Bankers outside Afghanistan said it would be difficult to get the financial system running again without the bank specialists who joined the exodus. “I don’t know how they will manage it because all the technical staff, including senior management, has left the country,” one banker said.
The European Union will need to engage with the Talibanbut will not rush into formally recognising them as the new rulers of Afghanistan, a senior EU official said.
LEFT BEHIND
More than 123,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in the U.S.-led airlift after the Taliban seized the city in mid-August, but tens of thousands of Afghans at risk remained behind.
With Kabul’s airport out of action, efforts to help Afghans fearful of the Taliban focused on arranging safe passage across the borders with Iran, Pakistan and central Asia.
At Torkham, a crossing with Pakistan just east of the Khyber Pass, a Pakistani official said: “A large number of people are waiting on the Afghanistan side for the opening of the gate.”
Uzbekistan’s border with northern Afghanistan remained shut.
Britain and India held separate talks with Taliban officials in Doha amid fears that up to half a million Afghans could flee.
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Wednesday that Afghans had so far largely stayed within Afghanistan and only small numbers had fled to neighbouring countries. It called for $300 million in international funding for the humanitarian emergency.
The Taliban said they had surrounded forces in Panjshir, the only province still resisting, and called on them to negotiate a settlement. Some Taliban leaders mocked the United States.
“Your power is gone, your gold is gone,” Anas Haqqani, a Taliban leader, said on Twitter, posting a photo of himself holding discarded shackles as he toured Bagram prison, where he was held for years by U.S. forces.
Afghan economy in chaos, humanitarian crisis - The Frontier Post
There may well be some people, through sheer enmity and hatred of the Tali- and I suppose Butthurt, who want a humanitarian disaster to unfold in Afghanistan. But not me- I would like to see some sort of 'normality' to return (whatever that means under the Tali), and hopefully those weapons they inherited can be put to good use eliminating Isis there.
^^ Talking of Butthurt.
It is the ordinary folk that will suffer most if the whole place descends into chaos- not the Taliban fighters.
Just like it is the victims of war and their loved ones that suffer in the USA- not the assholes that sent them there.
Hey, I like Dylan.
^Disaster?
Biden claims Afghanistan withdrawal ‘extraordinary success’ in address to nation
In an address to the nation exactly 24 hours after he abruptly ended a chaotic evacuation of US troops from Afghanistan, a defensive and at times surly President Biden insisted the bug-out was an “extraordinary success,” despite the stranding of hundreds of American citizens and thousands of Afghan allies.
“As we close 20 years of war and strife and pain and sacrifice, it’s time to look to the future, not the past,” Biden said near the end of a 26-minute speech that was delivered in strident, occasionally angry tones and echoed earlier remarks justifying his decision to call home all US forces after nearly 20 years in Afghanistan.
Biden’s statement was initially scheduled for 1:30 p.m., then was pushed back to 2:45 p.m. and delayed a further 44 minutes. He began speaking at 3:29 p.m. ET, one day after the last American C-17 departed Kabul’s international airport. He did not take shouted questions from the White House press corps following the conclusion of his remarks.
Read more
Biden claims Afghanistan withdrawal 'extraordinary success' in address to nation
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,"
Chinese are cozying up to the Afghans. Come on OhOh. Only fair you refer to Chinkistan from now on when posting stuff.
Deleted.
Last edited by OhOh; 03-09-2021 at 06:22 PM.
Sure, it will soon enough die down from the daily news cycle Nort. I think it is Biden's domestic political opponents that will most conspicuously try and string it out (remember 'Benghazigate', cringe?) for their own political agenda, and no doubt some ongoing snide editorials in China Daily, RT, PressTV etc. But you are considered suspect if you even read them in these narratively dictatorial times.
Nope, I'm waiting for the Hollywood movies & mini-series. I reckon the money made on 'nam movies (some classics too) might well exceed that spent on the war.
But at the end of the day, how much has been wasted on this futility, for who's benefit and at who's cost? Of course I am not only referring to Afghanistan.
Last edited by sabang; 04-09-2021 at 04:40 AM.
At the end of the day America should have never got involved in the shithole and those that live there.
Their presence and involvement there was ordered and orchestrated by Dick Cheney for his personal business interest reasons which confirms he was the most powerful cretin amongst a lot of cretins in political power at that time.
And them neo-cons. They finagled America down a bad path. But I doubt the villains will ever be held to account, unfortunately.
“Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains." - Raymond Chandler -
Hizbi, hazara, pashtun, tadzjik, sunni, shia, ismailite, uzbek..
prognose: continuous civil war
Last edited by lom; 04-09-2021 at 11:07 AM.
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