When a Hellfire missile was launched on Aug. 29 at a target in a Kabul neighborhood — a parked car suspected of containing explosives for use in a suicide attack — U.S. military officials said they were confident the driver and another man at the location had suspected militant ties and were the only people nearby. The missile took about half a minute to reach the white sedan. In that time, three children approached the car just before it was destroyed, according to a senior U.S. military official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing military investigation. The children were killed, the official said, and families of the victims said another seven people also died in the strike, including the driver and the second man. U.S. Central Command’s initial description of the drone strike in a statement said that the operation targeted a vehicle linked to the Islamic State-Khorasan and produced “significant secondary explosions” from the vehicle, indicating a “substantial amount of explosive material.” The Washington Post provided imagery of the damage caused by the strike and U.S. military assessments of the operation to experts, including a physicist and former bomb technicians, and spoke to the nonprofit that employed the driver targeted in the operation. Taken together, their assessments suggest there is no evidence the car contained explosives; two experts said evidence pointed to an ignition of fuel tank vapors as the potential cause of the second blast.
via washington post: Examining a ‘righteous’ strike – Expert analysis of deadly U.S. drone strike’s aftermath in Kabul suggests no evidence of explosives in targeted vehicle
siehe auch: „TRAGISCHER FEHLER“: Pentagon räumt zivile Opfer bei Drohnenangriff in Kabul ein. Bei einem amerikanischen Luftschlag Ende August in Kabul sollen bis zu zehn unschuldige Zivilisten gestorben sein. Das gab das US-Militär jetzt bekannt. Man habe mit dem Angriff einen „tragischen Fehler“ gemacht. Das US-Militär hat einen US-Luftangriff in der afghanischen Hauptstadt Kabul Ende August als „tragischen Fehler“ bezeichnet. „Ich bin inzwischen davon überzeugt, dass bis zu zehn Zivilisten, darunter bis zu sieben Kinder, bei diesem Angriff auf tragische Weise ums Leben gekommen sind“, sagte US-General Kenneth McKenzie, der das US-Zentralkommando Centcom führt, am Freitag. Außerdem halte man es für unwahrscheinlich, dass das Fahrzeug und die getöteten Personen eine direkte Bedrohung für die US-Streitkräfte dargestellt hätten oder mit Isis-K, einem Ableger der Terrormiliz Islamischer Staat (IS), in Verbindung gestanden hätten..