By Michael Gisick
KABUL, Afghanistan — A series of failures by two command posts in Afghanistan combined with “inaccurate and unprofessional” reporting by unmanned drone operators in the U.S. led to an airstrike that killed about two dozen civilians in southern Afghanistan earlier this year, according to a military investigation.
The Feb. 21 airstrike near the village of Khod in Uruzgan province came after U.S. special forces mistook a convoy of civilian vehicles for a Taliban force attempting to flank their position, the report said.
A redacted summary of the investigation into the incident, released Saturday, raised new question both about the use of unmanned drones, which are often piloted remotely from the U.S., and about oversight of Special Operations teams in Afghanistan.
The report said two children were seen among the vehicles prior to the airstrike but that Predator drone operators at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada “ignored or downplayed” indications that the vehicles contained civilians. U.S. troops tracked the convoy for roughly 3½ hours before helicopter gunships arrived and opened fire with missiles and aerial rockets.
Meanwhile, “poorly functioning” command posts in Afghanistan “failed to analyze the readily available information and communicate effectively” with the commander of the U.S. ground patrol, the report said.
