Two weeks ago, Pentagon officials claimed the United States droned members of ISIS-K who were planning an attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. They've refused to name who they killed, but reassured America "secondary explosions" from the vehicle struck by a U.S. missile proved it was going to be used in an attack.
Pentagon will not release names of the 2 ‘high-profile’ ISIS planners killed in single U.S. drone strike: Kirby
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) August 28, 2021
Biden's @PentagonPresSec John Kirby -- they just like lie sociopaths, not even blinking: pic.twitter.com/tGNCskSKQA
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 10, 2021
An MQ-9 Reaper drone fires one 20lb Hellfire missile at the car. The military says that the strike sets off large secondary explosions, suggesting the presence of a significant amount of explosives. pic.twitter.com/RKybbVkUYF
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021
It turns out, that wasn't true. The Pentagon didn't hit a member of ISIS-K. Instead, a man who worked for a U.S. aid organization and his family were killed.
The military said it believed Zemari Ahmadi’s white Toyota Corolla, which it tracked by drone for eight hours that day, was packed with explosives. Security camera video we obtained showed him loading it with water containers for his home. I'll detail our findings in this thread. pic.twitter.com/1hEaFBmcDo
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021
Ahmadi was a 14-year employee of Nutrition & Education International, a U.S. NGO that fights malnutrition. He helped start up soy factories, repair machinery, transport his colleagues and distribute food from his Corolla to displaced Afghans. pic.twitter.com/S7r1TyHBs0
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021
Four days before Ahmadi was killed, his employer had applied for his family to receive refugee resettlement in the U.S. At the time of the strike, they were still awaiting approval. Looking to the U.S. for protection, they became some of the last victims in America’s longest war. pic.twitter.com/3IcgTyc5ca
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021
We gathered photos and videos of the scene taken by journalists, and @mattaikins visited the courtyard multiple times. We shared that evidence with three experts. All three agreed that the damage was consistent with a single Hellfire strike, and not large secondary explosions. pic.twitter.com/HUXcZFHwCL
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021