OCT 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 10.1

In an instant, 10 people were
killed, including at least seven
children, Ahmadi’s brother Emal
said Monday. Among the dead
were Ahmadi, 40, who the family
said worked for a Southern California-based
charity; a 25-yearold
nephew who was about to
be married; and five kids who
were 5 years old or younger.
In the driveway, what remained
of the Corolla was a blackened,
incinerated heap of metal, melted
plastic and scraps of what
appeared to be human flesh
and a tooth. Somewhere near
the passenger’s side was a hole
where a projectile had punched
through. Two Los Angeles Times
journalists who visited the site
examined metal fragments consistent
with some kind of missile.
U.S. forces, who pulled out
of Afghanistan on ???, say they
launched a drone strike that destroyed
a car loaded with explosives
and suicide bombers heading
for Kabul’s airport, where a
terrorist attack killed more than
180 people, including 13 U.S. service
personnel.
It remained unclear whether
the drone strike was linked to
the blast that hit Ahmadi’s car.
In an initial statement after the
strike, U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Urban,
a spokesman for the U.S. military’s
Central Command, said the
strike had hit its intended target
and that there were no indications
of civilian casualties.
But in a subsequent statement,
Urban said the Pentagon
was aware of reports of civilian
casualties and was investigating.
“We would be deeply saddened
by any potential loss of innocent
life,” he said.
He said the U.S. strike “disrupted
an imminent ISIS-K threat,”
a reference to the Afghan affiliate
of the militant Islamic State
group, which claimed responsibility
for the deadly bombing on
the outskirts of the Kabul airport.
In the wake of that attack, the
Pentagon launched an airstrike
in eastern Afghanistan that it
said killed both the “facilitator”
and “planner” of the bombing.
Urban said there were powerful
secondary explosions from
Sunday’s drone strike, which he
said indicated a large number
of explosive materials inside the
targeted vehicle. Those secondary
explosions “may have caused
additional casualties,” he said.
In Khwaja Burgha, members of
Ahmadi’s family said there had
been only one explosion and that
the resulting fireball had partially
burned a crimson Toyota SUV
that was also in the driveway.
“We heard a loud bang, and the
whole house shook,” said Abdul
Khalil, the Ahmadis’ neighbor.
One of the rooms in his house is
adjacent to the Ahmadis’ driveway;
the blast had dislodged
large chunks of plaster from the
wall.
The outside walls of the Ahmadis’
home were spattered
with bloodstains that had begun
to brown.
If the deaths of Ezmari Ahmadi
and his family members are
determined to be the result of
an errant U.S. drone strike, the
horrific tragedy would lay bare
the dangers of the Pentagon’s
long-term plans for so-called
over-the-horizon attacks as a
centerpiece of its counterterrorism
mission. Even when U.S.
troops were fully deployed in
Afghanistan, with CIA operatives
and American special forces
working alongside Afghan security
forces, mounting civilian
casualties soured many Afghans
on the U.S. presence and boosted
the Taliban’s popularity.
Family members insisted there
was no way Ahmadi was involved
with ISIS-K. If anything,
they would have been considered
targets by the extremist group,
which counts all who worked
with the U.S.-backed Afghan
government and its foreign allies
as spies, traitors, and collaborators.
The family said Ahmadi had
worked for the last 16 years with
Nutrition & Education International,
a nongovernmental
organization based in Pasadena.
Ahmadi’s business card identifies
him as a technical engineer, and
it bears the logo of the organization,
whose homepage carried
this message Monday: “Due to the
security issues in Afghanistan,
our website is temporarily disabled.”
Ahmadi had applied for a special
U.S. immigration designation
that would allow him to leave
Afghanistan and go to the U.S.,
his brother Emal said. Thousands
of Afghans who worked
with Western organizations have
fled since the Taliban took over
Afghanistan earlier this month,
but thousands more are in danger
of being left behind as the
U.S. wraps up its airlift at Kabul
airport Tuesday.
Ahmadi’s nephew Nasser, who
was also killed in the explosion,
had worked with U.S. special
forces in the western Afghan city
of Herat, and had also served as
a guard for the U.S. Consulate
there before joining the Afghan
National Army, family members
said. The 25-year-old, who relatives
said was to be married this
week, had come to Kabul to see
if he could push along his own
application for a special immigrant
visa.
Sitting on a pile of sandbags
outside the family compound,
Ezmari Ahmadi’s other brother,
Ramal, could barely speak
through the grief of having lost
three children in the explosion:
Binyamin, 5; Arwin, 3; and Aya,
just 1.
He had been in his room when
the missile struck. “There was
just this big explosion. I was totally
in shock. I didn’t understand
what happened,” he said, his
eyes red from crying.
For two hours after the blast,
he remained dazed, but then
began to understand that his
three children had piled into the
car with their uncle Ezmari and
cousin Farhad and had been
killed.
Mohammad Fawad, a relative,
stood enraged in front of the
incinerated Corolla.
“I want Joe Biden to know
about this. Why do you attack
these people and say it’s Daesh?”
he said, referring to Islamic State
by its Arabic acronym, which is
considered a pejorative by the
group.
“All of these kids were martyred,”
Fawad said, furiously
scrolling through pictures of
those killed on his phone. “Look
at them. Which one of these
people is Daesh? These people
worked with the government —
with the U.S. And look at these
kids. Do you think they’re Daesh?”
Emal Ahmadi was also distraught.
“They shouldn’t do this kind of
action, killing civilians,” he said.
“I lost my family.”
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