US Drone Strike in Kabul Kills 9 Family Members, Including 6 Children

The US claims the strike targeted ISIS

A US drone strike in Kabul on Sunday killed nine members of one family, including six children, the brother of one of the victims told a journalist in the city working with CNN.

The US claims the strike destroyed a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s ISIS affiliate, but witnesses said it hit two cars parked at a residential building. “We are not ISIS or Daesh and this was a family home — where my brothers lived with their families,” the brother said.

The brother said the youngest of the dead was a two-year-old girl. The journalist said family members told him that one of the cars that were hit contained a father and three of his children.

Earlier in the day, Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesperson for US Central Command, confirmed the drone strike and said the US is investigating if there were civilian casualties. “We are confident we successfully hit the target,” he said.

The US drone strike comes a few days after Thursday’s suicide attack claimed by ISIS killed at least 175 people, including 28 Taliban members and 13 US troops. Early Saturday, the US launched a drone strike in Nangahar province that the Pentagon claims killed two “ISIS-K planners.”

President Biden has vowed that airstrikes against ISIS-K would continue, so the US will likely continue to bomb Afghanistan as it wraps up the evacuation and withdrawal. The Pentagon said Saturday that it has begun withdrawing troops, which needs to be completed by the approaching August 31st deadline.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.