The final act of the U.S. war in Afghanistan was a drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 people. Our latest investigation shows how a man the military saw as an "imminent threat" and "ISIS facilitator" was actually an aid worker returning to his family:
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The military said it believed Zemari Ahmadi’s white Toyota Corolla, which it tracked by drone for eight hours that day, was packed with explosives. Security camera video we obtained showed him loading it with water containers for his home. I'll detail our findings in this thread.
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Ahmadi was a 14-year employee of Nutrition & Education International, a U.S. NGO that fights malnutrition. He helped start up soy factories, repair machinery, transport his colleagues and distribute food from his Corolla to displaced Afghans.
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But the U.S. military was on high alert. Three days earlier, an Islamic State suicide attack at the Kabul airport had killed 13 troops and more than 170 Afghans. “All threat warnings are flashing red,” a senior official told us. They expected another attack.
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At around the time Ahmadi was picking up his colleagues, the U.S. military said it observed a white sedan emerge from an Islamic State safehouse near Ahmadi’s home, 5km northwest of the airport. Intercepted communications from the safehouse gave the sedan instructions, they said.
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But interviewed all 5 men who were in the car with Ahmadi that day. They said that what the military interpreted as a series of suspicious moves represented a typical day in his life. He drove his colleagues around town, where they made plans for food distributions.
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The office security camera we obtained is crucial to understand what happens next. Though the camera settings are off, verified its time by visiting the office, and matched what we see on camera with timestamped satellite imagery.
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At 2:35pm, Ahmadi and a colleague fill several large plastic containers with water. The footage shows Ahmadi bring them to the office earlier that day. His brother told us his neighborhood suffered from a water shortage and that he routinely filled up containers at the office.
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With the work day ending, an employee switches off the office generator, and the camera goes dark. The military said it now saw four men load wrapped packages into the car. Ahmadi’s colleagues said they were stowing laptop bags, which the footage shows here, earlier in the day.
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Ahmadi drops his colleagues off and turns onto his street. His and his brothers’ children surround the car, his relatives said. The family has a habit of letting kids steer the car into the courtyard of their home. Somehow, the military said, the drone team sees none of this.
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We gathered photos and videos of the scene taken by journalists, and visited the courtyard multiple times. We shared that evidence with three experts. All three agreed that the damage was consistent with a single Hellfire strike, and not large secondary explosions.
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Our reporting concludes that the U.S. military struck a car parked inside a multi-family home in Kabul without knowing who the driver was, what he did for a living or where he lived. Fearing an attack, they interpreted an average day in his life as the behavior of a terrorist.
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Four days before Ahmadi was killed, his employer had applied for his family to receive refugee resettlement in the U.S. At the time of the strike, they were still awaiting approval. Looking to the U.S. for protection, they became some of the last victims in America’s longest war.
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Watch our full investigation here:
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This story began with the core and essential work of our team, a quick and accurate geolocation from @heytherehaIey: twitter.com/heytherehaIey/. We followed that up with thorough reporting, expert consultation, and tireless on-the-ground work by .
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Video from the Khaje Bughra neighborhood of Kabul as the U.S. claims to have carried out a drone strike in the city. Smoke rising from 34.57454, 69.16211. twitter.com/karimi_shafi/s
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Our thanks to and for lending us their invaluable expertise, and to Nutrition & Education International and Ahmadi's colleagues, who asked for anonymity, fearing they could be targeted by both the Taliban and the United States.
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