The head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken admitted Tuesday (September 14th) not knowing if the last strike of the United States in Kabul, supposed to have prevented
"an imminent threat"
, had killed a jihadist of the group Islamic State-Khorasan (EI-K ) or a humanitarian.
The New York Times had published an investigation Friday disputing the version of Joe Biden's government about this drone aerial attack carried out on August 29, just before the end of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, indicating that it could have killed no a jihadist with the car laden with explosives, but an NGO employee carrying cans of water.
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"The man the Biden administration killed by drone, was that an aid worker or an IS-K activist?"
, asked Republican Senator Rand Paul during a parliamentary hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"I don't know because we are in the process of examining"
this strike, replied Antony Blinken.
The senator estimated that while the US attack did kill civilians, including children,
"you may have created hundreds or thousands of potential new terrorists by bombing the wrong targets
.
"
The family of the driver of the vehicle, Ezmarai Ahmadi, told AFP the day after the strike that ten people, most of them children, had been killed.
According to the American newspaper, which is based on images from surveillance cameras and on interviews, the trips deemed suspicious by the American army of Ezmarai Ahmadi on the day of the strike corresponded to an ordinary working day.
He also indicates that the trunk of the car was certainly filled with cans of water that the man brought home.
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Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, questioned on Friday about the
New York Times
revelations
, said the investigation was continuing but said the military continued to "believe" the strike had
"prevented an imminent threat to the United States. airport ”
where the United States was leading the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. The US attack came days after an IS suicide bomber unleashed a massive explosion at the entrance to Kabul airport, killing nearly 100 Afghans as well as 13 US service personnel. The US military left Afghanistan at the end of August after twenty years of war.
American Democratic senators also crushed on Tuesday the
“fatally flawed” implementation
of the withdrawal from Afghanistan by the government of Joe Biden, during a hearing with the head of diplomacy Antony Blinken, already faced the day before with strong criticism from republicans.
“
The implementation of the US withdrawal has been clearly and fatally flawed,”
said Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, demanding that the government provide
“full explanations”
and
“be held to account”
.
“A lot of us want to know how the intelligence got so wrong.
"
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin
If he felt, like Antony Blinken, that
“the chaos”
which accompanied the hasty withdrawal and evacuation of tens of thousands of people at the end of August was due to the
“surrender agreement”
concluded in 2020 by the Former US President Donald Trump with the Taliban, the influential elected Democrat also deplored Washington's unpreparedness. In particular, the failures of intelligence, which according to the Secretary of State did not see the collapse of the Afghan army and the rapid seizure of power by the Taliban. And the very slow process to grant US visas to Afghans who may face reprisals from the Islamists.
"Shouldn't we have started earlier?"
, asked Bob Menendez, who also said he was
"very disappointed"
by the refusal of Defense Minister Lloyd Austin to be heard by his commission. Like Monday before the deputies of the House of Representatives, Antony Blinken defended the decisions of his government. He insisted several times that no one predicted that the insurgents could take power
"in eleven days"
, even before the departure of the last American soldier.
"I don't think that's true,"
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine replied, like many Republicans.
"The probability of a collapse"
of the authorities
"was not 0%"
, he insisted.
Read alsoAfghanistan: Americans end the longest war in their history
"Many of us want to know how intelligence could have been so wrong
,
"
said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin.
He also considered that the planned contingency plans had failed to guarantee access to Kabul airport for people wanting to flee Afghanistan.
Antony Blinken explained that US intelligence estimated in February that the worst-case scenario would see the Taliban take the Afghan capital within two years of the US leaving.
In July, faced with the advance of Islamist rebels, intelligence revised its forecast, warning that the Taliban could come to power before the end of 2021.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio asserted that it was not an
"intelligence failure"
but a
"policy failure"
because the government
"did not know or did not want to see"
what was going to happen.