CNN: New footage of bombing during US withdrawal from Afghanistan contradicts Pentagon report

New evidence presented by CNN contradicts the conclusions of two Pentagon investigations — one of which was announced last week — into the ISIS-K suicide attack near Kabul airport during the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021.

The incident came at the bloody end of one of the longest wars fought by the United States, which left 13 American soldiers and 170 other Afghans dead. The latter were desperately trying to ask for help to escape the path of the Taliban who were about to take control of the capital of Afghanistan.

For two years, the US military insisted that the incident was caused by a single explosion and that the troops, who reported being fired upon and firing in turn, were most likely confused by the chaos created by the explosion .

But video shot by a GoPro camera of one of the American soldiers, which has not been fully released until now, shows that there was much more gunfire than the Pentagon has admitted.

“It wasn’t one, it was two shots.” It was massively fired

Several US military personnel who were present at the incident described the scenes to CNN. One of them says he heard the first sustained burst of gunfire coming from US Marines near the blast site.

“It wasn’t one, two shots. There was a high volume of shooting,” the American soldier said.

An Afghan doctor said he personally removed bullets from those wounded in the incident and, along with his hospital colleagues, counted dozens of Afghans who had been shot to death.

The new evidence casts doubt on the Pentagon’s version of events – US authorities continue to reject any suggestion that some of the civilians were shot dead, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

The explosion that occurred at 17:36 on August 26, 2021, near Hamid Karzai International Airport, was the worst casualty of Afghan civilians and US troops in more than 10 years, at which times.

For several days, hundreds of desperate Afghans, men, women, children and the elderly, waited in the unbearable heat in the hope of persuading the Americans to allow them access to the airport grounds and to one of the transport planes that evacuated over 100,000 people.

When an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated the bomb he had hidden in his backpack above a concrete canal full of people, the evacuation process came to an abrupt halt.

The Pentagon insisted that all victims were killed or injured by the explosion and shrapnel that bounced in all directions through the crowd.

Although U.S. officials have acknowledged that U.S. and British forces fired weapons, they say the gunfire was limited and occurred almost simultaneously: warning shots by British troops and two volleys fired by U.S. troops at militant suspects, who did not hit anyone.

“In front of me, people were being shot and collapsing”

Although no soldiers can be seen firing in the footage obtained by CNN, the sounds of gunfire can be heard in 11 different episodes after the explosion — far more than the three gunshots that appear in the Pentagon’s investigation.

Although some soldiers can be seen helping the wounded Afghans, almost 22 minutes after the explosion, Marines fire a canister of tear gas from inside the airport towards the area where the explosion occurred.

The canister could have reached the area where wounded or dead Afghan civilians lay in the drain that ran through the blast area.

A spokesman for Britain’s Ministry of Defense said troops fired “warning rounds into the crowd to prevent a stampede”, which were not fired at people.

CNN previously reported that 19 Afghan witnesses said they saw him being shot or shot.

“I saw people who were injured in the explosion trying to get up, but they were shot at,” Shogofa Hamidi, whose sister was shot in the face, said in an interview with CNN included in a report published in February 2022.

“They were targeting people,” said another, Nazir. “In front of me, people were getting shot and collapsing.”

Noorullah Zakhel, whose cousin was killed, said the bullets appeared to have hit those who tried to flee and recalled soldiers standing in front of him as he dropped to the ground behind the wall the channel.

An Afghan doctor who was treating victims of the attack was threatened

“Wounds from explosions come with severe injuries and many holes in the body,” Dr. Sayeed Ahmadi, director of Wazir Akhbar Khan Hospital in Kabul, also explained. “But the people who were being shot only had one or two holes in their chest or head.”

Ahmadi said he received a threatening call the night of the attack, telling him to stop recording which patients were shot and who died or were injured in the blast.

One of the Marines interviewed said he did not believe anyone fired warning shots.

“To the Afghan families – I’m sorry that after 20 years of war, this is how things have turned out,” said another soldier who was present at the incident. “And that we couldn’t keep the promise we made to your people after we ousted the Taliban in 2001. And it shouldn’t have ended this way.”

Another soldier described how a sergeant ordered American troops to open fire after the explosion occurred. “My platoon sergeant ran past us saying ‘get back on that wall and fire back at those bastards.’ So I thought, we’re also in a gun fight.”

Another US serviceman who survived the incident told CNN that he endured 2 years of “leadership telling us that what we saw was basically not true”. He summed up the two Pentagon investigations this way: “Shut up. We speak for you.”

Editor: Raul Nețoiu

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