KABUL: An Afghan whose daughter was among 10 relatives killed by a wrongly directed US drone strike expressed anger yesterday at Washington's decision not to punish anyone for the deadly mishit. "God will take revenge," said Aimal Ahmadi, 32, who lost his three-year-old daughter Malika and nine other relatives in the August 29 strike, which came as the United States military scrambled to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said Monday that no US service member would face disciplinary action for what it called an "honest mistake" in wrongly identifying the family's white Toyota as an Islamic State target. "There was not a strong enough case to be made for personal accountability," said spokesman John Kirby. The drone hit came three days after an IS suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport killed more than 150 people-including 13 US troops-significantly raising tensions in the evacuating force. Asked by AFP if he felt angry, Ahmadi said: "Definitely... What if the US had lost a child? What would the reaction have been?"
The Pentagon has promised to pay compensation and help relocate surviving family members but Ahmadi said the family had heard nothing directly from the US government or military. "We have only heard through the media... that they were sorry," he said. Relatives of the family had previously said they wanted a face-to-face apology from US officials. Ahmadi, standing metres away from where the drone struck, said some women in the family were so traumatised that they had to move house. "Since the day of the explosion, they said 'we don't want to go to this house again. We saw our kids being martyred there'."
'Punish the culprits'
Ahmadi said his surviving daughter, seven-year-old Adda, misses her little sister Malika. His last memory of her was when she told him 'I love you' in the days before the strike, he said, adding that Malika's favourite game was hide-and-seek. Afghanistan's Taleban government yesterday urged the US to reverse the decision not to punish anyone.
"If there is any justice and regard for human rights and respect for human dignity, then it's their responsibility to punish the culprits and compensate the victims," said Taleban spokesman Bilal Karimi. Ahmadi's brother Zemari, who also died in the drone strike, had been an employee of US aid group Nutrition and Education International (NEI) at the time. Last month, NEI founder and president Steve Kwon called the Pentagon's investigation into the incident "deeply disappointing and inadequate". - AFP