CIA warned of children's presence seconds before US missile killed 10 in Kabul: Reports

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly issued a warning that there could be potential civilian casualties in the area, including children who were possibly present inside the targetted car, moments after the US launched a Hellfire missile in Kabul last month to strike down what it believed was a terror threat to the airport evacuation efforts. According to reports, the warning came too late because the missile had already been fired, and officials received a note about it just seconds before the projectile impacted. The missile strike failed to hit any of the terrorist sites it was meant to hit, instead of killing ten people, including seven children, said reports.

According to people familiar with the incident, there may have been a miscommunication between the military and the intelligence community because rapidly shifting situations often necessitate quick action without following up on the entire chain of command. The CIA, on the other hand, refused to comment when informed about the development, said reports.

Civilian casualties have been a consistent reality in Afghanistan due to the gap in decision-making between the two institutions; however, analysts cited by the news network say that these "mistakes" will only get worse without the presence of US troops on the ground, who could potentially have verified the correct target before successful strikes on legitimate ISIS-K or al Qaeda targets.

US military launched missile in Kabul

The US military admitted on Friday that the August 29 drone strike in Kabul was a "tragic mistake," with all 10 persons killed being civilians, including seven children, and none of them having any connection to the terrorist organisation IS-K, as had been stated earlier. It was a marked contrast to the Pentagon's earlier depiction of the Kabul drone strike, which was hailed as a successful operation that foreshadowed the over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities that President Joe Biden promised the US would have in Afghanistan after the withdrawal.

Some former intelligence officials go even further, claiming that CIA drone strikes kill far fewer civilians than military ones, but the agency's figures aren't public and outside groups that track drone strike casualties say the US military routinely undercounts its collateral deaths, making an accurate comparison difficult to draw, said reports.

Image: AP