Nine killed, including children, in US drone strike on Kabul, family says

Nine members of one family — including six children — were killed in a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighbourhood of Kabul, a relative of the dead told a local journalist working with CNN.

The youngest killed was a two-year-old girl, according to a brother of one of those killed.

They were “an ordinary family,” he said. 

“We are not ISIS or Daesh and this was a family home — where my brothers lived with their families.”

Neighbours and witnesses at the scene of the drone strike in Kabul told CNN that several people were killed, including children.

“All the neighbours tried to help and brought water to put out the fire and I saw that there were five or six people dead,” a neighbour told CNN. 

“The father of the family and another young boy and there were two children. They were dead. They were in pieces. There were [also] two wounded.”

Another neighbour told CNN that they estimated that there might have been up to 20 people killed in the strike. 

“Not much is left of their house and nothing can be recognised, they are in pieces,” the neighbour said.

Another witness told CNN that after the strike, neighbours and onlookers “removed six dead bodies” and believes that there are “children who are still missing.”

The US military acknowledged later on Sunday that there were reports of civilian casualties following the strike.

“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties,” Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for US Central Command, said in a statement.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Monday (early Tuesday AEST) said US authorities were still investigating the claims and were “not in a position to dispute” them.

“No military on the face of the earth works harder to avoid civilian casualties than the United States military and nobody wants to see innocent life taken,” he said.

“We take it very very seriously and when we know that we have caused innocent life to be lost in the conduct of our operations, we’re transparent about it.”

US forces have been racing to complete their evacuation operation before Tuesday’s deadline and under the threat of a new terror attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. 

A US official confirmed the location of the strike as being in Kabul’s Khaje Bughra neighbourhood.

“US military forces conducted a self-defence unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the CENTCOM statement read.

“Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”

The Taliban, which is now in control of Afghanistan, condemned the strike later on Sunday, saying the US had violated the country’s sovereignty.

Bilal Kareemi, a Taliban spokesperson, told CNN that it was “not right to conduct operations on others’ soil” and that the US should have informed the Taliban. 

“Whenever the US conducts such operations, we condemn them,” he said.

How the strike happened

The vehicle that was targeted by the US in Sunday’s airstrike on Kabul was next to a building and contained one suicide bomber, a US official told CNN.

It remains unclear if the vehicle was intended to be a car bomb, or if the suicide bomber was using it for transport.

“It was loaded up and ready to go,” the official told CNN.

A Pentagon official told CNN that according to initial reports, the target was a vehicle believed to be containing multiple suicide bombers. The threat could also have been a car bomb or someone with a suicide vest, he said, citing initial reports.

Captain Urban said earlier on Sunday the US military was “assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time” and would remain vigilant against potential future threats.

One man told a journalist working with CNN who visited the compound that “a rocket hit and six people were in there who have been killed. There was a car inside.” The journalist was not allowed to enter the compound.

Another man said that he heard the sound of a rocket and gained access to the scene from a neighbour’s house.

“First we managed to remove a 3- to 4-year old child. The fire and smoke had engulfed the whole area,” he said.

He added that “three people were inside the car” and three others were outside the car. The injured, who included children, were taken to the hospital, he said.

US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that military commanders had advised that “another terrorist attack on Kabul’s airport was “highly likely in the next 24-36 hours,” and the US Embassy in Kabul warned all US citizens to leave the airport area immediately.

The White House said on Sunday morning that about 2900 people were evacuated from Kabul from 3am New York time (5pm AEST) on Saturday to 3am on Sunday. Those evacuations were carried out by 32 US military flights and nine coalition flights.

The mission is clearly winding down, with fewer people brought out than during the same time period on preceding days.

Mr Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday to mourn with the families of the 13 US service members killed in Thursday’s attack as their bodies were brought back to US soil.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the 13 would be remembered as heroes. 

“These men and women made the ultimate sacrifice so that others could live,” he said.

ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, has claimed that an ISIS militant carried out the suicide attack, but provided no evidence to support the claim. US officials have said the group was likely behind the bombing.

On Saturday, the Pentagon said two “high profile” ISIS targets had been killed and another injured in a US drone strike late Friday in Jalalabad, in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, in a retaliatory strike for Thursday’s attack.

Rockets fired on Kabul airport

As many as five rockets were fired at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday, a US official told CNN.

The C-RAM defence system installed at the airport engaged with the rockets, the official said. There are no reports of any casualties at this time.

C-RAM is an automated system that detects incoming attacks and uses a machine gun to destroy the incoming fire before it can hit its target. The system has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan to intercept and destroy incoming projectiles targeting US forces.

The US official said the rockets aimed at the airport were likely launched by ISIS-K, but cautioned it was too early to know for sure.

A civilian vehicle was apparently used as an improvised platform in the rocket attack. Video obtained by CNN showed the vehicle in flames on a street in Kabul’s Khair Khana neighbourhood after the rockets were fired.

The incinerated remnants of the car are covered with debris, the glass missing from all windows and rubber melted from the tires. The car appears to have been modified, with six large tubes visible inside the charred skeleton.

Zia ud Din, a potato-chip seller whose house was next to where the car was parked, heard the bang of the rockets launching.

“There were a few big bangs, we all were inside the house — the whole family — when we heard the loud bangs, we ran into the garden, everything caught fire,” he said. 

“Fortunately, no one is killed or injured.”

Taliban fighters had initially cordoned off the street, telling bystanders the situation remained dangerous, though they later allowed journalists on the street.

Eyewitnesses said one of the rockets hit a nearby building. A rocket impact was visible on a nearby high-rise tower, though Taliban fighters and eyewitnesses said there were no casualties in the building.