Afghanistan: US offers to pay families of 10 killed in botched drone strike

Washington - Working to relocate relatives who wish to leave country to the States, says Pentagon

The United States said Friday it has offered to pay unspecified compensation to relatives of 10 people in Afghanistan including seven children who were killed by mistake in a US drone strike as American forces were completing their withdrawal.

In a statement the Pentagon also said it was working with the State Department to relocate to the United States any of those relatives who wish to leave Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The offer to pay these people was made Thursday in a meeting between Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defence for policy, and Steven Kwon, the founder and president of an aid group active in Afghanistan called Nutrition and Education International, the Pentagon said in a statement.

That organization employed Ezmarai Ahmadi, who was wrongly identified as a Daesh militant by US intelligence on August 29 during the final days of the chaotic US evacuation from Kabul.

US intelligence tracked his white Toyota for eight hours before targeting the car with a missile, killing seven children and three adults, including Ahmadi.

US Central Command commander General Kenneth McKenzie said at the time that American intelligence had seen the vehicle at a site in Kabul that had been identified as a location from which Daesh operatives were believed to be preparing attacks on the Kabul airport.

Three days earlier, a Daesh-Khorasan suicide bomber had killed scores at the airport, including 13 US service members.

But last month, US officials conceded the drone attack was an error.

In the meeting Thursday, “Dr Kahl noted that the strike was a tragic mistake and that Mr Ezmarai Ahmadi and others who were killed were innocent victims who bore no blame and were not affiliated with (Daesh)-K or threats to US forces,” said a statement attributed to Defense Department spokesman John Kirby.

“Dr Kahl reiterated Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s commitment to the families, including offering ex gratia condolence payments,” he added without saying how much money was offered.

In the meeting Thursday NEI chief Kwon spoke of how Ahmadi worked with that aid organization “over many years, providing care and lifesaving assistance for people facing high mortality rates in Afghanistan.”