Alwaght- Iran condemned the US military’s killing of 10 Afghan civilians, including 7 children, in a drone strike, saying Washington cannot exonerate itself by describing such frequent atrocities as "mistakes" and the victims as "collateral damage."
“On the way out, US military kills 10 more Afghan civilians, incl. 7 kids. By describing such frequent atrocities as "mistakes" & the victims as "collateral damage", the US can't acquit itself,” Iranian foreign ministry said in a tweet on Saturday.
The ministry urged the international community to hold the United States “accountable for years of occupation and violence” in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
The tweet came a day after US military admitted killing 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, in a drone strike on August 29. Washington previously claimed those who were killed were terrorists.
The Pentagon had maintained that the strike targeted a Daesh-K terrorist who posed an imminent threat to American troops at the Kabul airport, with Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley calling it a "righteous strike.”
But on Friday, General Frank McKenzie, the top general of US Central Command, announced at the Pentagon that the military investigation has found it killed 10 civilians and the driver and that the vehicle targeted was not a threat associated with Daesh-K, a shadowy terrorist group that emerged following the last month bomb blast at the Kabul airport. The attack killed scores of Afghans and over a dozen Americans.
McKenzie told reporters that the US military drone strike was a "mistake" and offered an apology.
The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, despite the fact that no Afghan was involved in the attacks. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans died in the US war of aggression on the country.
American forces occupied the country for about two decades on the pretext of fighting against the Taliban. But as the US forces left Afghanistan, the Taliban stormed into capital Kabul, weakened by continued foreign occupation.
US officials assert that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists, but many experts and independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.
They believe that rogue elements within the US government, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.
