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06-02-2022
WASHINGTON/ KABUL: The US military said on Friday that a single Islamic State bomber killed 13 US troops and at least 170 Afghans at Kabul airport last August, not the complex attack originally suspected, and that it could not have been prevented with the resources on hand.
Briefing reporters on the results of a military inquiry, Marine General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said the bomb sent 5mm ball bearings ripping through a packed crowd at the airport’s Abbey Gate. The investigation found no definitive proof of any gunfire.
“I want to acknowledge that the investigation differs from what we initially believed on the day of the attack,” McKenzie said. “At the time, the best information we had in the immediate aftermath of the attack indicated that it was a complex attack by both a suicide bomber and ISIS-K gunmen,” he added.
The bombing occurred on Aug. 26 amid the evacuation of US nationals and at-risk Afghans from Kabul airport. According to McKenzie, no one was killed or injured by gunfire, adding that the explosively fired ball bearings caused wounds that looked like gunshots.
“The investigation found no definitive proof that anyone was ever hit or killed by gunfire, either U.S. or Afghan. This conclusion was based upon the careful consideration of sworn testimony of more than 100 witnesses, and especially those witnesses in observation towers, both American and British, who were in locations unaffected by the blast and that had commanding views of the scene before, during and after the explosive attack,” McKenzie said.
The attack put the US military on a heightened state of alert that may have contributed to a botched US drone strike that mistook civilians for Islamic State militants.
Asked whether it could have been prevented, Army Brigadier General Lance Curtis said: “Based upon our investigation, at the tactical level, this was not preventable. And the leaders on the ground followed the proper measure.”
McKenzie and other US military officials said the investigation had gathered testimony from more than a hundred witnesses, analysis from medical examiners and explosives experts, drone footage and other evidence.
Officials said the bomb was made from about 20 pounds of military-grade explosives and the bomber most likely raised it before detonating it. Beyond the 13 US service members killed, some 45 others were wounded.
This comes as “Alive in Afghanistan” and ProPublica published a report including interviews from Kabul hospitals offering accounts of bullet wounds in victims from the attack at Abbey Gate, along will bomb shrapnel.
The report said two British troops fired roughly 30 warning shots into the air, the investigation found.
It continued: One Marine fired four warning shots over the head of what investigators called a “suspicious individual” and said he saw him run away unharmed. Another Marine fired fewer than 30 rounds at an adult male allegedly holding an AK-47, who was positioned on a rooftop to the east.
In the hurried operations that followed, military doctors assessed that many of the injured and dead had been shot. The doctors treated US service members and dozens of Afghan civilians. After consulting military medical examiners, the investigators determined the doctors were mistaken in their assessment of what they thought were gunshot wounds. None of the doctors recovered bullets from any patients.
According to Alive in Afghanistan and ProPublica, the investigators never spoke to any of the local, Kabul-based physicians who treated the majority of civilians.
Doctors at Emergency Surgical Centre, a well-regarded, Italian-run facility in Kabul that specializes in the treatment of war victims, said they received 10 people with fatal injuries from gunfire.
Eight were shot in the head or neck, they said. The others were shot in the chest. The doctors said they also treated patients with gunshot wounds.
“It was really a disaster situation,” said Dr. Mir Abdul Azim, a senior surgeon on duty that night at Emergency, who was quoted by Alive in Afghanistan and Pro-Publica. Azim did not find any bullets in his patients or the dead. But he said he could tell that the wounds were caused by bullets and not ball bearings from the shape and size of the entry and exit wounds, along with other factors such as the tissue damage he saw. (Tolo News)
