A US drone strike may have mistakenly killed an aid worker instead of an ISIS-K member in Afghanistan last month, reports show.
Investigations by The New York Times and The Washington Post suggest there were no explosives in the white sedan that was struck by a US drone on August 29, the day before the US completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Monday said there has been nothing to change the view that last month's drone strike “prevented an imminent attack” at the Kabul airport. Gen Mark A Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the time called the operation a “righteous strike” that prevented an attack by ISIS-K.
“We will be as transparent about the outcomes as we can be,” Mr Kirby said about an ongoing US Central Command probe into the event.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken meanwhile told Congress the strike was “being looked at very, very, very carefully by others in the administration so that we understand exactly what happened."
The Times reported that military officials were unaware of the driver's identity when the drone fired, but thought he may have had ties to ISIS because of his activities that day. Officials said he may have visited an ISIS safe house and loaded what they perceived to be explosives into the vehicle.
The driver was identified as Zemari Ahmadi. His employer, a California-based aid group, said his movements were in accordance with his duties for the non-profit and his activities may have been misinterpreted by the military, according to The Post.
A video analysis by The Times showed that he and a colleague were loading canisters of water into his trunk - not, as the military alleged, explosives.
Steven Kwon, president of the California-based Nutrition and Education International, denied the charity had any links to ISIS-K.
“We're trying to help people,” Mr Kwon told The Post. “Why would we have explosives to kill people?”
The Post reported that the US military had “credible intelligence” that a second assault at the Kabul airport was likely and that the car would be used for that purpose. The decision to strike the car once it pulled into the courtyard was made to minimise or avoid harm to civilians.
US officials said a larger explosion took place after the drone strike, justifying their actions, but The Times report found no evidence of a second explosion, and added that there was only one dent in a nearby gate and no signs of an additional blast such as blown-out walls.
Military officials have so far acknowledged that three civilians were killed in the strike, but Mr Ahmadi's relatives said that 10 members of the family - including seven children - were killed.
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
SPECS
%3Cp%3EEngine%3A%20Twin-turbocharged%204-litre%20V8%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20625%20bhp%3Cbr%3ETorque%3A%20630Nm%3Cbr%3EOn%20sale%3A%20Now%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh974%2C011%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Slow loris biog
From: Lonely Loris is a Sunda slow loris, one of nine species of the animal native to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore
Status: Critically endangered, and listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list due to growing demand in the global exotic pet trade. It is one of the most popular primate species found at Indonesian pet markets
Likes: Sleeping, which they do for up to 18 hours a day. When they are awake, they like to eat fruit, insects, small birds and reptiles and some types of vegetation
Dislikes: Sunlight. Being a nocturnal animal, the slow loris wakes around sunset and is active throughout the night
Superpowers: His dangerous elbows. The slow loris’s doe eyes may make it look cute, but it is also deadly. The only known venomous primate, it hisses and clasps its paws and can produce a venom from its elbow that can cause anaphylactic shock and even death in humans
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
The Pope's itinerary
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 268hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: CVT auto
Fuel consumption: 9.5L/100km
On sale: now
Price: from Dh195,000
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
