The Kabul airstrike that was conducted wiith drones, and killed 10 Afghan civilians, will not held accountable any of the responsible US troops or officials, announced the Pentagon.
The drone strike took place in the final days of the US-led evacuation of Kabul on August 29, after the Taliban ousted the civilian government and took control of the country.
Spokesman John Kirby on Monday said that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had received a high-level review of the strike which made no recommendation of accountability.
“He approved their recommendations,” Kirby said. “The secretary is not … calling for additional accountability measures.”
The US officials carried out the drone strike near the international airport in Kabul against the ISIS-K militants who were readying themselves to launch another suicide attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
They claimed to have successfully killed the Islamic State – Khorasan (ISIS-K militants), but a survey of the area and interview of the civilians done by WION revealed that the strike actually claimed the lives of civilians.
That strike killed an aid worker, along with his nieces and nephews.
In early November, an initial report carried out by the US air force inspector general, Lt Gen Sami Said, called the strike tragic but “an honest mistake”.
But the probe committee has absolved all the US troops and officials responsible for the attack.
“What we saw here was a breakdown in process, in execution and procedural events, not the result of negligence, not the result of misconduct, not the result of poor leadership,” said Kirby.
If Austin “believed … that accountability was warranted, he would certainly support those kinds of efforts”, Kirby added.