Rocket hit car full of kids: US strike killed 10 of Kabul family

Kabul

When Ezmarai Ahmadi returned home from work on Sundayevening in Kabul, the usual gaggle of squealing children were waiting to greethim -- his sons and daughters, and a slew of nieces and nephews. He pulled hiswhite sedan into the driveway of a modest house in Kwaja Burga, a denselypopulated neighbourhood in the northwest of the Afghan capital, and handed thekeys to his eldest son to park.

Youngsters piled into the vehicle -- pretending the parking routinewas an adventure -- while Ezmarai watched from the side. Then out of the blueAfghan sky, a missile came screeching down -- striking the car with a terribleforce and obliterating the lives of 10 people in an instant. The United Statessaid Sunday it had destroyed an explosive-laden vehicle in an air strike,thwarting a bid by the Islamic State to detonate a car bomb at Kabul airport.

On Monday, it looked as if they could have made a terriblemistake. "The rocket came and hit the car full of kids inside ourhouse," said Aimal Ahmadi, Ezmarai's brother.

"It killed all of them." Aimal said 10 members ofthe family died in the air strike -- including his own daughter and five otherchildren. On Monday, Aimal was impatiently waiting for other relatives toarrive to help him organise burials for most of his family.

"My brother and his four children were killed. I lostmy small daughter... nephews and nieces," he said disconsolately. "Weare aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehiclein Kabul," Captain Bill Urban, a US military spokesman, said in astatement.

Aimal can scarcely believe his brother could be mistaken foran Islamic State sympathiser, let alone an operative planning a deadly car bombattack. Ezmarai was an engineer working with a non-governmental organisation --an ordinary Afghan trying to make ends meet in a turbulent time.

US nerves have been frayed since an IS suicide bombertriggered a massive blast at an entrance to the airport on Thursday, as hugecrowds clamoured to get inside in the hope of getting aboard one of the finalevacuation flights out of Afghanistan.

Nearly 100 Afghans were killed, and also 13 US servicemembers -- just days before the last American soldier withdrew from the countryon Monday night. Against that backdrop, US intelligence had warned of anotherimminent attack, and on Sunday the US military said it had stopped one beforeit happened. "We are still assessing the results of this strike, which weknow disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport," Urban saidSunday, using an acronym for the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group.

"We know that there were substantial and powerfulsubsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicatinga large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additionalcasualties," he continued. "It is unclear what may have happened, andwe are investigating further."

The deaths were among the last reported before the final USforces flew out of Afghanistan on Tuesday, after a brutal 20-year war.

Just over 38,000 civilians were killed between 2009 and theend of 2020, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan,which began systematically recording civilian casualties in 2009. More than70,000 others were wounded over the same period.

When locals heard the blast in the neighbourhood, theyswiftly came to see what help they could offer. "All the children werekilled inside the car, the adults were killed just outside. The car was on fire-- we could hardly find body parts," said one, named Sabir. "We wouldbe deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life," the USspokesman said in the statement. But those words rang hollow for anotherneighbour, Rashid Noori. "The Taliban kill us, IS kill us and theAmericans kill us," he said.