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Deadly U.S. strike in Kabul missed evidence of child present
An August U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians was not caused by criminal negligence but by a series of errors, including not noticing a child minutes before the strike took place, an investigation by a military inspector general found on Wednesday.
The Aug. 29 strike killed 10 civilians, including seven children, in an incident the military previously called a "tragic mistake."
Initially, the Pentagon had said the strike targeted an ISIS (Daesh) suicide bomber who posed an imminent threat to U.S.-led troops at the airport as they completed the last stages of their withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The strike came days after a Daesh suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghan civilians who had crowded outside the airport gates, desperate to secure seats on evacuation flights, after U.S.-trained Afghan forces melted away and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan swept to power in the capital.
An investigation by the Air Force inspector general said the strike was caused by execution errors, interpreting information that supported certain viewpoints, and communication breakdowns, Reuters reported.
"It's a regrettable mistake. It's an honest mistake," Lieutenant General Sami Said, the Air Force inspector general, told reporters.
According to Said, when he reviewed data and video footage, he found evidence of one child nearby about two minutes before the trigger was pulled on the drone strike.
But he added he noticed the presence of the child as he looked at the video well after the incident and that it would have been easy to miss at the time, Reuters reported.
Said did not recommend disciplinary action but said it would be up to commanders to make a decision on what, if any, accountability action should be taken.
Steven Kwon, co-founder and president of Nutrition and Education International, which employed one of the victims, said the investigation was "deeply disappointing and inadequate."
"According to the Inspector General, there was a mistake but no one acted wrongly, and I’m left wondering, how can that be?" Kwon said in a statement.
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Human traffickers should be sentenced to 1 to 3 years in prison: IEA leader
The Leader of the Islamic Emirate has issued a decree instructing the Ministry of Interior Affairs to prevent human trafficking and to arrest and refer culprits to military courts.
The decree containing six articles says that that military courts should sentence human traffickers to one year in prison for the first time, two years if repeated for the second time and three years if repeated for the third time.
The ministries of Hajj, information, telecommunications, borders, propagation of virtue, as well as religious scholars are asked to inform the public about the dangers and adverse consequences of travelling through smuggling routes.
The decree comes as the rate of migration has increased following the political change in Afghanistan in 2021.
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Eight Afghan migrants die as boat capsizes off Greek island
Eight Afghan migrants died after a speedboat carrying migrants capsized off Greece's eastern island of Rhodes on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
Greek authorities said that the capsizing was the result of the boat’s maneuvering to evade a patrol vessel.
A total of 18 migrants — 12 men, three women and three minors — all Afghan nationals, were rescued, Greece's coast guard said Saturday. The dead were also from Afghanistan, it said.
Some migrants remained hospitalized, with one in critical condition, authorities said.
Two Turkish citizens, ages 23 and 19, were arrested as the suspected traffickers. The boat sank after capsizing, the coast guard said.
The sinking off Rhodes was the second deadly incident involving migrants in the past week.
Seven migrants were killed and dozens were believed missing after a boat partially sank south of the island of Crete over the weekend — one of four rescue operations during which more than 200 migrants were rescued.
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Norwegian Chargé d’Affaires meets with IEA deputy foreign minister
Welcoming the diplomat’s visit to Kabul, Stanikzai underscored the importance of political relations between Afghanistan and Norway, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Norwegian Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan, Per Albert Ilsaas, on Saturday met with IEA’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai, in Kabul.
Welcoming the diplomat’s visit to Kabul, Stanikzai underscored the importance of political relations between Afghanistan and Norway, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
In addition to focusing on bilateral political, humanitarian, and other pertinent issues, the two sides expressed hope that continued engagement would lead to constructive solutions to related issues.
This comes two weeks after the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi expressed disappointment regarding the decision by the Norwegian government to downgrade diplomatic relations with Afghanistan.
Balkhi said in a post on X that such decisions should not be linked with internal affairs of other countries.
“Diplomatic engagement is most effective when it fosters mutual understanding and respect, even amidst differing viewpoints,” he stated.
“Access to consular services is a fundamental right of all nationals. We strongly urge all parties to prioritize this principle in the spirit of international cooperation,” he added.
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