Facing scrutiny from a Senate panel Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that he doesn't know if the U.S. mistakenly targeted an aid worker in a drone strike in Kabul that reportedly killed 10 Afghan civilians.
Driving the news: The U.S. is still investigating the strike, and maintains it "was taken to prevent an imminent threat to the airport," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement Tuesday. "We do work very hard to avoid civilian casualties, and we would be deeply saddened by any loss of innocent life.”
The New York Times reported the drone had mistakenly hit a worker for the U.S. aid group Zemari Ahmadi.
What they're saying: "Was he an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative?" Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Blinken at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"I don't know," Blinken said, adding that the strike is still under review.
"You'd think you'd kind of know before you off somebody with a predator drone, whether he's an aid worker or he's an ISIS-K operative," Paul responded, suggesting that past administrations have also killed civilians in airstrikes, resulting in "blowback" that can engender more extremists.
