Afghan family ravaged by U.S. drone strike mistake wants headstones for the dead -- and ...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Europe

Afghan family ravaged by U.S. drone strike mistake wants headstones for the dead — and possible new life in America

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Yesterday at 4:43 p.m. EDT

KABUL — By the time the American apology arrived, the lives of the Ahmadi family were already upended. And being falsely accused by the U.S. military of ties to the Islamic State was not the worst part of the ordeal.

There was their shattered family house. There were the nightmares, the bouts of crying and the screams triggered by the memory of a U.S. drone strike on Aug. 29 that killed 10 of their relatives, including seven children. ... There were the fresh fears of persecution by the Taliban after the media spotlight on the family noted that some members, including survivors, worked for U.S.-based entities or the former Afghan security forces.

The Hellfire missile — the weapon used in the Pentagon’s capstone attack at the end of a two-decade war — also killed the family’s only breadwinner, Zamarai Ahmadi.

{snip}

What the family seeks now is to exit their American-made hell. Family members in interviews on Saturday expressed no visible animosity toward the U.S. government for killing their loved ones. But forgiveness may be too strong a word. ... Rather, the Ahmadis grasp onto a sense of pragmatism. They want compensation from the U.S. government and help in leaving Afghanistan and getting resettled in the United States or another safe country, family members said.

{snip}

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Sudarsan Raghavan is a correspondent at large for the Washington Post. He has reported from more than 65 nations on four continents. He has been based in Baghdad, Kabul, Cairo, Johannesburg, Madrid and Nairobi. He has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the 2011 Arab revolutions, as well as 17 African wars. Twitter https://twitter.com/raghavanWaPo

[Tom Rinaldo]

1. They need to get all that they are asking for from the United States

It literally is the least that we can do.

[70sEraVet]

2. I agree