Amid the latest ISIS resurgence along the Afghan-Pakistan border, US drones attacked the area in the eastern Nangarhar Province, killing at least 13 civilians and wounding 14 others, according to officials. The attack centered around a house that apparently belonged to a public health employee.
The Pentagon had previously announced a strike in Nangarhar, claiming 13 ISIS were killed. Afghan police dutifully reiterated this claim, saying 18 ISIS were killed in the attack. The Pentagon has since confirmed, however, that they are investigating reports of civilian deaths.
Afghan provincial officials have also said they are sending a commission to investigate the incident, and while President Ghani mostly shrugs off civilian deaths in a way that his predecessor didn’t, this probe is likely to oblige the Pentagon to be at least a little transparent with their own.
This would mark the second bungled US airstrike in Afghanistan in a little over a week, after a previous incident in which US forces tried to “rescue” Afghan police on the ground by blowing up their checkpoint and killing eight of them.