Today marked two years since the beginning of the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, during which it killed an Afghan aid worker and nine members of his family without any subsequent accountability.
Zemari Ahmadi was an electrical engineer working for a U.S. nongovernmental organization when a U.S. drone targeted and struck him as he pulled into his home’s driveway. The strike killed Ahmadi, two adults, and seven children.
The strike happened in the emotionally-charged aftermath of an ISIS suicide bombing that killed 13 American service members.
Despite questions over possible civilian casualties from the strike, Pentagon leaders took a victory lap, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley infamously calling it a “righteous strike.”
Joh In this Aug. 18, 2021 photo, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley pauses while speaking during a media briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A New York Times report revealed soon after that the strike did not kill a suspected terrorist, but rather, Ahmadi and nine members of his family in front of their home, prompting the Pentagon to admit it had made a mistake.
However, after an internal review by U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon said no one would be punished for the errant strike.
“I do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the August 29th airstrike,” then-Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said at a December 2021 press conference.
According to a report by the Intercept in May, the Pentagon has still not made those promised payments for Ahmadi’s surviving family members, who now live in California but are struggling to make ends meet.
Afghans inspect damage done to the Ahmadi family home after a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 29. The Pentagon announced on September 17, 2021, that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the drone strike, not an Islamic State extremist. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi)
Emal Ahmadi shows a photo of his family member who was killed during a U.S. drone strike on their home in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ahmadi said the U.S. drone strike killed 10 members of his family, six of them children. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi)
Emal Ahmadi shows a photo of another one of his 10 family members who was killed during a U.S. drone strike on their home in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi)
A relative of Ezmarai Ahmadi, is pictured through the wreckage of a vehicle that was damaged in a US drone strike in the Kwaja Burga neighborhood of Kabul on September 18, 2021. (HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images)
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is investigating the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal.
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) said in a statement Tuesday:
Two years ago, Kabul fell to the Taliban and Americans and Afghan allies were forced to flee for their lives. This led to a deadly and chaotic evacuation that saw Americans being beaten in the streets by the Taliban, evacuees falling from planes to their doom, and the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan in more than a decade, claiming the lives of 13 heroes. The abandonment of Afghanistan – and the more than 1,000 American citizens and 100,000 Afghan partners we left behind – diminished our moral authority and invited aggression from adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran.
This catastrophe was the result of one terrible decision after another by President Biden and his administration, who ignored the advice of military leaders and dire warnings from diplomats on the ground. For two years, President Biden has refused to take responsibility for the disaster he caused or even acknowledge it as a failure. Not a single person has been held accountable. That ends in this Congress.
“I will not rest until we uncover every stone and get to the bottom of how this happened and who is responsible for these failures. Our service members, veterans and our Gold Star families – especially those who lost family on August 26th at Abbey Gate – deserve answers and justice. We must do everything we can to make sure this never happens again.”
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