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Pentagon Won’t Punish Troops in Botched Drone Strike That Killed Afghan Civilians

The drone strike resulted in the deaths of 10 civilians, including seven children.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has approved recommendations that none of the military personnel responsible for a botched drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, face punishment, a senior Pentagon official told The New York Times. The decision comes after the Pentagon admitted in September that the last U.S. drone strike before troops withdrew from Afghanistan was a “tragic mistake” that resulted in the deaths of 10 civilians, including seven children.

The investigation that followed left the final decision on any potential punishment to two senior commanders, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the military’s Central Command, and Gen. Richard D. Clarke, head of the Special Operations Command. Both officers decided that no troops involved would be punished.

The U.S. military has a decades-long history of not holding individuals responsible for botched raids and airstrikes that often kill civilians. One exception is from 2016, when a dozen military personnel were disciplined for an airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed 42 people. Discipline did not extend to criminal charges.