The senior commander of the United States military said last week that a drone assault on a car near Kabul International Airport was a “righteous strike” that thwarted an Islamic State plan in the final hours of the massive evacuation operation.
General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that secondary explosions following the drone strike on Sunday confirmed the military’s conclusion that the car contained explosives – either a suicide vest or a large bomb. Milley is a former Marine Corps officer who served in Vietnam. Military planners, according to General Milley, made the necessary measures ahead of time in order to minimise dangers to people in the surrounding area.
Military authorities, however, admit that the early investigation of the attack and the circumstances surrounding it provides much less convincing evidence in support of these accusations than they would like to believe. It also raises concerns about an assault that, according to friends and family members of the vehicle driver, resulted in the deaths of ten individuals, seven of whom were children.
So yet, there is no conclusive evidence that explosives were included in the vehicle. In the early study, it was determined that it was “possible to likely” that this was the case, according to officials who were briefed on the findings. Drone operators and analysts examined the claustrophobic courtyard where the car had been parked for just a few seconds before being sent. Officials claim that a commander authorised the attack after seeing no people in the area. However, a shaky live-video stream showed additional individuals approaching the truck seconds later, as the Hellfire missile sped closer to its intended target.
Navy officers, on the other hand, say that the preliminary evaluation also lends support to a very strong circumstantial case of an imminent and serious threat to the airport, a case that American planners built over eight hours last Sunday by monitoring the actions of the sedan and listening in on the communications of the suspected plotters. The preliminary evaluation was conducted by the U.S. Navy’s Joint Special Operations Command.
