Pentagon offers payment, relocation to family of Afghans killed in botched drone attack

WASHINGTON (Reuters): The Pentagon has offered unspecified condolence payments to the family of 10 civilians who were killed in a botched US drone attack in Afghanistan during the final days before American troops withdrew from the country.

The US Defense Department said it made a commitment that included offering “ex-gratia condolence payments”, in addition to working with the US State Department in support of the family members who were interested in relocation to the United States.

Colin Kahl, the US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, held a virtual meeting on Thursday with Steven Kwon, the founder and president of Nutrition & Education International, the aid organization that employed Zemari Ahmadi, who was killed in the August 29 drone attack, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said late on Friday.

Ahmadi and others who were killed in the strike were innocent victims who bore no blame and were not affiliated with Daesh or threats to the US forces, Kirby said.

The drone strike in Kabul killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children.

The Pentagon had said earlier that the August 29 strike targeted a Daesh suicide bomber who posed an imminent threat to US-led troops at the airport as they completed the last stages of their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

However, reports had emerged almost immediately that the drone strike in a neighborhood west of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport had killed civilians including children. Video from the scene showed the wreckage of a car strewn around the courtyard of a building. The Pentagon later said the strike was a “tragic mistake”.

The strike came three days after a suicide bomber killed 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians who had crowded outside the airport gates, desperate to secure seats on evacuation flights, after US-trained Afghan forces melted away and the Taliban swept to power in the capital in mid-August.

The killing of civilians also raised questions about the future of US counter-terrorism strikes in Afghanistan.