WASHINGTON — Soon after the U.S. army mistakenly killed 10 civilians, together with seven kids, final August within the ultimate U.S. drone strike ahead of American troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the Biden management pledged to lend a hand surviving family members relocate to the United States for his or her protection.
Nearly a 12 months later, fewer than a dozen of the 144 members of the family were resettled within the United States and 32 other people stay trapped in Afghanistan with little hope of having out quickly, advocates for the circle of relatives stated on Monday. The leisure were caught for months in a diplomatic limbo after being transported to a few international locations to wait for screening to go into the United States.
The odyssey of the members of the family of Zemari Ahmadi, the motive force of a white Toyota sedan that was once struck by means of the American drone, and others hired by means of Mr. Ahmadi’s help group in Afghanistan is a saga of passport issues, bureaucratic pink tape and Taliban capriciousness. On someday in June, as an example, 43 members of the family touring overland had been allowed to move into Pakistan. The very subsequent day, a an identical workforce was once grew to become again on the border after the Taliban imposed new travel-document laws.
Lawyers for the members of the family praised the efforts of the Pentagon and the State Department to lend a hand evacuate their shoppers, and stated that they had evaded commenting publicly till now to give protection to their shoppers’ protection. But they stated a lot more had to be completed and had been now breaking their silence.
“As the anniversary of the strike approaches, the public needs to know that the government is failing to meet its promises, and our clients’ lives are in the United States’ hands,” stated Brett Max Kaufman, a senior workforce legal professional for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing participants of Mr. Ahmadi’s circle of relatives in addition to different staff of Nutrition & Education International, Mr. Ahmadi’s help group in Afghanistan.
Mr. Ahmadi’s members of the family and different staff of the help group the U.S. executive agreed to evacuate are a small subset of the greater than 120,000 Afghans who had been airlifted after the Taliban seized regulate of the rustic final August, and the 1000’s who sought to escape however have up to now failed.
Officials stated the potentialities for extracting the final 32 members of the family hiding in Afghanistan become extra sophisticated after the C.I.A. two weeks in the past killed Ayman al-Zawahri, the chief of Al Qaeda, whilst he was once hiding out in a space in a crowded segment of the Taliban-controlled Afghan capital.
“I remain increasingly scared for the people — including Zemari’s family members and our N.E.I. colleagues — who are still stuck in Afghanistan without any certainty or timeline to get out,” Steven Kwon, the founder and president of Nutrition & Education International, stated in a remark.
“The U.S. government must keep its promise and get all those affected by its mistaken drone strike to safety before it’s too late,” Mr. Kwon stated.
Pentagon officers stated that they had been operating for months together with State Department and White House colleagues to evacuate the members of the family and different staff of the help group, in spite of not having any American army or diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
“The Department of Defense, in coordination with other U.S. government departments and agencies, continues to take steps to respond to the Aug. 29, 2021, airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan,” Todd Breasseale, the performing Pentagon press secretary, stated in a remark. “To protect the privacy of the family members, as well as to help protect their safety and security, we are not able to provide more information regarding these efforts at this time,” Mr. Breasseale added.
Senior Defense Department officers and armed forces commanders stated quickly after the Aug. 29 drone strike that Mr. Ahmadi had not anything to do with the Islamic State, opposite to what army officers had up to now asserted. Mr. Ahmadi’s handiest connection to the terrorist workforce seemed to be a fleeting and harmless interplay with other people in what the army believed was once an Islamic State secure space in Kabul, an preliminary hyperlink that led army analysts to make one misjudgment after every other whilst monitoring Mr. Ahmadi’s actions within the sedan for the following 8 hours.
In addition to resettlement within the United States, the Pentagon has introduced unspecified condolence bills to members of the family. Administration officers and legal professionals for the circle of relatives stated negotiations over any bills were suspended till all members of the family were safely evacuated from Afghanistan.