Washington Post Staff Writer
KABUL -- A biting U.S. military report released Saturday criticized "inaccurate and unprofessional" reporting by operators of unmanned drones for contributing to a mistaken February airstrike that killed and injured dozens of civilians in Southern Afghanistan.
As many as 23 people were killed in the attack in Uruzgan Province, where a strike intended for what military officials believed was an insurgent force hit a civilian convoy. The incident was condemned by the Afghan cabinet as "unacceptable," and it prompted Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, to apologize to Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
In a memo accompanying the military report, McChrystal said four senior officers were reprimanded and two junior officers were admonished in connection with the strike, and he announced bolstered training to prevent similar incidents in the future.
McChrystal has made it a top priority to reduce civilian casualties as the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan has shifted from killing Taliban members to protecting Afghan people. He has restricted the use of air strikes, night raids and home searches, all in a bid to quell public hostility.
"Inadvertently killing or injuring civilians is heartbreaking and undermines their trust and confidence in our mission," McChrystal said in a statement. He added: "When we make a mistake, we must be forthright and we must do everything in our power to correct that mistake."
The Feb. 21 incident in Uruzgan, a Southern province, occurred when a U.S. helicopter fired Hellfire missiles and rockets on a three-vehicle convoy approaching the village of Khod, where U.S. and Afghan ground forces were battling Taliban fighters. A ground commander had determined the convoy was carrying militants arriving to provide backup to the fighters, according to the report, written by Maj. Gen. Timothy P. McHale.
But the four-page report said that judgment was based on flawed information from "poorly functioning" ground command posts and faulty reports from Predator drone operators, who were tracking the convoy from their stations at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. Those operators, the report said, "deprived the ground force commander of vital information" as it tracked the convoy for three-and-a-half hours.
Those observing the convoy reported adult men "moving tactically and appearing to provide security during stops." But Predator operators failed to notice women in the convoy, the report said, and though they did spot two children nearby, the information they provided led the ground crew to believe the vehicles carried only "armed military-aged" men.
"Information that the convoy was anything other than an attacking force was ignored or downplayed by the Predator crew," according to the report, which said the vehicles contained more than 30 people.
The report said the aircraft crew stopped firing when its members spotted brightly colored clothing, leading them to believe women might be at the site. By then, 23 men had been killed and 12 had been wounded, including one woman and three children, the report said. That "tragic loss of life" was exacerbated by the U.S. forces' failure to immediately report the possibility of civilian casualties, as required. The deaths were not reported until 12 hours after the incident.
The U.S. military said McChrystal briefed Karzai on the report earlier this week. In a statement, Karzai said he was satisfied with the investigation and measures taken to prevent similar incidents, which he called "deeply regrettable."
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