12 civilians killed, 5 injured during U.S. operations in 2021 – By Meghann Myers (Military Times) / Sept 28, 2022
Air strikes coordinated by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of 12 civilians and injuries to five more in 2021, during the final days of the war in Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department’s annual civilian casualties report, released Tuesday.
Ten of those deaths were the result of an errant bombing in Kabul a day before U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan for good, an attempt to prevent another attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport as a noncombatant evacuation wrapped up.
Though no one was formally punished for the mistaken targeting in that attack, which killed Zamarai Ahmadi and nine members of his family, it did provide a reckoning for DoD’s handling of not only air strikes but their aftermath, prompting attempts at further transparency going forward.
In line with that, the Pentagon made public its latest annual civilian casualty report to Congress on Tuesday. Beyond the Kabul attack, the U.S. accounted for 2 more civilian deaths, one in Herat on Jan. 8, 2021, and one in Kandahar on Aug. 11, 2021, as well as three civilian injuries in Barrow, Somalia, on Jan. 1, 2021, and two in Kandahar on Jan. 18, 2021.
