US Pentagon video shows fatal Kabul strike on family

WASHINGTON－The Pentagon has declassified and publicly released video footage of a drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians in the final hours of a chaotic US withdrawal that ended a 20-year war in Afghanistan, reported The Associated Press.

The New York Times obtained the footage through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the United States Central Command, which then posted the imagery to its website. It marks the first public release of video footage of the Aug 29 strike, which the Pentagon initially defended but later called a tragic mistake.

The videos include about 25 minutes of footage showing two MQ-9 Reaper drones, the scene of the strike before, during and after a missile struck a civilian car in a courtyard on a residential street. Indistinct images also showed individuals moving in or near the attack zone.

The military said it struck what it thought was an extremist with the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate who might imminently detonate a bomb near the Kabul airport, where a hurried evacuation was still under way. Three days earlier, a suicide bombing at the airport had killed 13 US troops and more than 160 Afghans. When it later acknowledged its error in the drone strike, the Central Command said it determined that the man driving the car had nothing to do with the IS group.

The victim, Zemari Ahmadi, worked for the US-based aid organization Nutrition and Education International.

The abrupt withdrawal of troops sent Afghanistan's fragile economy into chaos, leaving millions to face hunger.

A statement by the United Nations Human Rights Council said the US-led military intervention was the root cause of the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. It cited that at least 47,000 Afghan civilians had been killed and more than 10 million people were displaced during the US-led war. The conflict has also severely affected Afghanistan's neighbors.

An August poll conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that only 26 percent of respondents believed the administration of US President Joe Biden handled the Afghanistan situation well, with 42 percent saying it did a poor job and 29 percent deeming it only a fair job.

Agencies Via Xinhua