The day of the attack, Ahmadi ran errands for his employer including picking up a laptop and delivering water. When he stopped at a compound erroneously believed to be an ISIS safe house, six Reaper drones surrounded the compound. At 4:53 PM, a single Hellfire missile was launched, killing 7 children and 3 adults. The attack was conducted by the Over-the-Horizon (OTH) Strike Cell group of the U.S. Central Command.[1]
The United States military initially denied the allegations. Later, with almost everything senior defense officials had asserted in the weeks after the drone strike turning out to be false, the US acknowledged the attack as a mistake after reviewing footage that showed three children coming to greet Ahmadi at his sedan before they were killed.[2]
On 17 September 2021, General Kenneth McKenzie accepted responsibility for the killings.[3]
On 15 October 2021, the Pentagon offered unspecified amounts of monetary compensation to the families of the victims and pledged help relocating to the United States. Condolence payments for deaths caused by the American military have varied widely; in fiscal year 2019 the Pentagon offered 71 such payments to victims in Afghanistan and Iraq ranging from $131 to a maximum of $35,000.[4]
On 13 December 2021, based on the recommendation of McKenzie and General Richard Clark, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that no U.S. personnel would face any disciplinary action as a result of the drone strike,[5] an announcement for which the Pentagon was criticized. U.S. Senator Chris Murphy called the lack of accountability "unacceptable", denouncing the message it sent "all the way through the command structure".[6]
On 20 January 2022, a group of 50 U.S. legislators submitted a letter to President Joe Biden, calling for a review of military practices, stating that "in too many instances, U.S. drone strikes have instead led to unintended and deadly consequences – killing civilians and increasing anger towards the United States," and describing the August 2021 strike as "emblematic of this systemic failure that has persisted across decades and administrations".[7]
On 27 January 2022, Secretary Austin addressed civilian casualties in drone strikes in a two-page directive in which he asked his department for a plan on the matter within 90 days.[8]