The U.S. military issued a statement Sunday evening after reports came out that multiple members of a family, including children, were killed in the U.S.’s drone strike in Kabul meant to stop an ISIS-K plot against the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
“We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement. “We are still assessing the results of this strike, which we know disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport. We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties.”
CNN reported earlier in the day that nine members of a family died in the U.S. drone strike, which targeted a vehicle in a residential neighborhood. Six of those family members were children—the youngest was 2.
"Nine members of one family -- including six children (youngest of them 2-years old) -- were killed in a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighborhood of Kabul, a relative of the dead told a local journalist working with CNN."https://t.co/gPezzMWr3t
— Mujib Mashal (@MujMash) August 30, 2021
“It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further,” the CENTCOM statement added. “We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life.”
UPDATE: U.S. Central Command statement on defensive strike in Kabulhttps://t.co/3z059Ih00U
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 30, 2021