New evidence contradicts the Pentagon’s previous reports surrounding the deadly August 2021 attack that resulted in the deaths of over a dozen U.S. service members.
CNN released a report Wednesday including video evidence that proves that gunfire was exchanged after a suicide bomber detonated his vest in the middle of a crowd outside the Kabul airport.
EXCLUSIVE: New video evidence uncovered by CNN significantly undermines the Pentagon's account of an ISIS-K suicide attack outside Kabul airport during the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Full report here: https://t.co/RTTnHBPyA9@npwcnn @mickbk pic.twitter.com/DO2dwZms7U
— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) April 24, 2024
This evidence contradicts reports presented by the Pentagon that all injuries and deaths were due to the bomb’s detonation and that no guns were fired during the attack.
The Defence Department concluded that “a single explosive device killed at least 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members by explosively directing ball bearings through a packed crowd.”
Both service members and civilians reported seeing and hearing gunshots but were disregarded.
Deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh praised the report released by the U.S. Central Command after the attack.
“CENTCOM conducted a very comprehensive, credible, and definitive investigation into the Abbey Gate bombing following the attack,” Singh said. “U.S. military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan … made decisions that they could with the information that they had at the time.”
When service members present at the attack asked why the gunfire wasn’t reported, they were told there was none, apart from a few warning shots by British troops, and were dismissed, with authorities suggesting that they were likely misremembering the event due to traumatic brain injuries.
Dr. Sayeed Ahmadi, who treated victims of the attack, reported pulling bullets out of civilians at the hospital. “Of course, when you see the bullets, it’s totally different from the ball bearing. Everybody knows if they are a soldier or a doctor,” Ahmadi said.
One anonymous marine told CNN: “It’s a pathetic excuse. To say that every Marine, every soldier, every Navy corpsman on the deck has a traumatic brain injury and cannot remember gunfire is, is lunacy. It’s outright disrespectful. And especially for it to come from somebody that wasn’t there.”
The event was chaotic and people were demanding as much information as possible from the U.S. government, but when they finally got a report, it was a lie.
The Biden administration’s atrociously mismanaged Afghanistan exit resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and more than a hundred Afghans, and his ratings never really recovered. After the pentagon’s attempts to hide information about a deadly terrorist attack, it’s even harder to trust the current administration.
