In Kabul, the father of a three-year-old girl killed in the bombing on Tuesday expressed anger at the decision. On his side the taliban government It indicated that it was “the responsibility of the Americans to punish the guilty and compensate the victims.”
“There is insufficient evidence to hold them personally responsible,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday to justify the absence of sanctions.
The Aug. 29 drone attack took place in the final days of the U.S.-led evacuation of Kabul, after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. Three days before an attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) had left more than 100 dead, including 13 American soldiers.
US officials said they had intelligence on a possible new IS attack on evacuation operations at Kabul airport, and launched a missile from a drone at what they thought was a car filled with explosives.
But it was actually Ezmarai Ahmad, an Afghan employee of an American NGO, who was with nine members of his family, including seven children.
In Kabul on Tuesday, Ezmarai Ahmed’s brother Aimal, who also lost his three-year-old daughter, Malika, in the bombing, did not hide his anger at the decision. “God will avenge the martyrs,” he told AFP.
“It is the responsibility of the Americans to punish those responsible and compensate the victims,” a spokesman for the Taliban government, Bilal Karimi, told AFP.
The decision not to issue sanctions was made by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, following a report by two senior officials, the head of the Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie Jr., and the head of the Special Operations Command, General Richard Clarke.
In early November, an initial report by the inspector general of the United States Air Force, Lt. Gen. Sami Said, called the attack tragic, but called it “an honest (unintentional) mistake.”
“What we saw here was a breakdown in the process, in enforcement and procedural events, not the result of negligence, not the result of misconduct, not the result of poor leadership,” Kirby said.
If Austin “believed that accountability was justified, he would certainly support those kinds of efforts,” he added.
Source From: Ambito
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