CIA warned of children near Kabul drone target: report

Intelligence officials warned the US military – too late – that children may have been in or near a targeted car in an Aug. 29 drone strike in Kabul that left 10 innocent people dead, according to one report.

It is not known exactly when the CIA alert was issued, said CNN, which cited three anonymous sources who noted that there were only seconds left before the Hellfire missile hit Zmaray Ahmadi’s Toyota Corolla. .

The Biden administration was forced to back down on initial claims that the strike shot dead a terrorist who was an “imminent threat” to the country, acknowledging on Friday that Ahmadi, an aide, was an innocent person.

“I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in this strike,” Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jr., head of the US Central Command, said on Friday, adding: “We now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and the deceased were associated with ISIS-K or a direct threat to US forces.”

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a statement calling Zemari an “innocent victim”, adding: “We apologize”.