Washington, Jan 20 :The US military has released videos of the drone strike that was conducted in Kabul on August 29 last year killing 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children.
The video was released by the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East, on Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The New York Times.
According to the NYT, the newly declassified surveillance videos encompass about 25 minutes of silent footage from two drones, a military official said both were MQ-9 Reapers, showing the minutes before, during and after the strike.
It is the first time any video from the Kabul strike has been released.
The video gave an aerial view of the military tracking a white Toyota Corolla through parts of the city, believing that it was an ISIS-K car laden with explosives and building a case for targeting it with a preemptive strike.
Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for US Central Command, said, “While the strike was intended for what was believed to be an imminent threat to our troops at Hamad Karzai International Airport, none of the family members killed are now believed to have been connected to ISIS-K or threats to our troops.
“We deeply regret the loss of life that resulted from this strike.”
Earlier, the Pentagon had defended the strike saying it had foiled an ISIS-K operative planning to attack US forces during the final days of evacuation and withdrawal.
Three days earlier to the incident, 13 US service personnel and dozens of Afghans were killed at Abbey Gate, the key entry point to the airport, in a bomb blast by ISIS-K.
Three weeks after the drone strike, the US military acknowledged its “tragic mistake”.(UNI)