[After interviews with Mr. Mubarez and villagers at the scene, and an analysis of footage before and after the strike, an open-source investigation by The New York Times and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism determined that civilians were killed in an airstrike that used an American-made, precision-guided bomb. In Afghanistan, only American forces use this type of weapon, The Times confirmed.]
By
Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Christiaan Triebert, Fahim Abed and Jessica Purkiss.
 |
|
Munition
fragments found in the rubble. The square bolt pattern is found on munitions
used by American fighter jets in
Afghanistan. Credit Masih Ur-Rahman
Mubarez/Safiullah
|
KABUL,
Afghanistan — Masih
Ur-Rahman Mubarez was working in Iran when his wife called him at 4 a.m. from
their home in eastern Afghanistan. American and Afghan troops were inside the
house, she said. It was a raid.
It was Sept. 23, 2018, and the next time Mr.
Mubarez, 39, managed to get a phone call through, her phone was off.
Between 10:30 a.m. and noon, as Mr. Mubarez
waited for word from his wife and seven children in Wardak Province, American
aircraft dropped a GPS-guided bomb on his house, killing them and four other
members of his family, according to Mr. Mubarez and the villagers who helped
pull the 12 bodies from the rubble.
The American-led military mission in
Afghanistan initially denied the bombing. Three months later, it confirmed the
airstrike down to the exact coordinates of Mr. Mubarez’s house in the small
hamlet of Mullah Hafiz. But the American command said that they had been
receiving sniper fire from the building, and that “after review, it is our
assessment that only combatants were killed.”
The disparity between Mr. Mubarez’s claim —
that 12 members of his family were killed — and the matter-of-fact denial from
the American military are emblematic of the nearly 18-year-old war, where
civilians in virtually every corner of Afghanistan have been touched by
violence and death at the hands of both sides.
After interviews with Mr. Mubarez and
villagers at the scene, and an analysis of footage before and after the strike,
an open-source investigation by The New York Times and The Bureau of
Investigative Journalism determined that civilians were killed in an airstrike
that used an American-made, precision-guided bomb. In Afghanistan, only
American forces use this type of weapon, The Times confirmed.
Mr. Mubarez is still searching for an
explanation of why his family was killed, and for justice. When he asked the
Taliban for answers, they denied the American claim that insurgent fighters had
holed up in his home.
“When I went away my home was fine; when I
returned it was destroyed, my children were in the grave,” Mr. Mubarez said in
an interview with The Times last month. “But I will not sit silent.”
Mr. Mubarez had worked for four years as a
teacher with a Swedish aid organization in his village before moving to Iran
out of economic necessity, he said.
What happened that September morning in
Mullah Hafiz, a Taliban-controlled village where cell towers are regularly shut
down and outside communication is sporadic, is still not completely clear.
Abdul Rahman Mangal, a spokesman for the
governor of Wardak Province at that time, denied that there had been any
civilian deaths. Mr. Mangal told Pajhwok Afghan News that the operation had been
conducted against a jail used by the Taliban, and that Taliban leadership were
among the dead.
But Raz Mohammad Hemat Wazir, the district
governor, said that the airstrike on Mr. Mubarez’s house killed 12 civilians,
including women and children. “The airstrike was carried out by American air
power during a military raid in the village,” he said.
Safiullah Rasooli, Mr. Mubarez’s cousin, who
was in Mullah Hafiz at the time of the strike, said that the night before there
had been a series of airstrikes before Afghan commandos and Americans came to
the village. Both Mr. Rasooli and Noor Khan, a village farmer, confirmed that
the troops searched houses around the Taliban prison. Some villagers were held
and then released, Mr. Khan said. Three people were arrested and taken to
Kabul.
Mr. Rasooli said the suspects were bound and
beaten, forced to huddle in a single room overnight in a nearby house.
The next morning, with Afghan and American
troops still in the village, witnesses said, the Americans bombed Mr. Mubarez’s
house. Mr. Rasooli said that he looked up and saw several aircraft circling
overhead.
Some villagers and Afghan government
officials told Mr. Mubarez that Taliban fighters were firing at the aircraft
and forces on the ground before the strike, some shooting from his house.
But both Mr. Khan and Mr. Rasooli said there
was no gunfire from the village that morning. For people who live in a village
under Taliban control, like Mullah Hafiz, confirming that there was gunfire
would leave them open to Taliban retribution.
Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for the American
forces in Afghanistan, said that American and Afghan troops had been in a gun battle
with the Taliban after the small force was airlifted into the area on the night
of Sept. 22.
Hours before Mr. Mubarez’s house was bombed,
an American soldier had been wounded and evacuated from Mullah Hafiz village,
he said, and American troops there reported they were taking “effective sniper
fire” from Mr. Mubarez’s house. The Americans then requested the airstrike, Mr.
Purtiman said. The American command offered no additional evidence that the
Taliban had been in the house.
Mr. Mubarez, whose house is roughly 150 yards
from the Taliban prison, said that the Taliban denied entering his house. A day
after the strike, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, accused the
Americans of killing 12 members of Mr. Mubarez’s family, all civilians.
But Taliban fighters have long used civilians
as shields against American airstrikes.
Several days after the bombing, Mr. Mubarez
returned to Mullah Hafiz from Iran. He found his house destroyed, his
children’s bicycles twisted and mangled. On a nearby hill were the graves of
his family: Amina, his wife; his four daughters, Anisa (14), Safia (12), Samina
(7) and Fahima (5); his three sons, Mohammad Wiqad (10), Mohammad Ilyas (8) and
Mohammad Fayaz (4); and their four teenage cousins.
“When I see my family’s grave, that moment is
the most painful moment for me,’’ Mr. Mubarez said. “And when I see my ruined
home, I don’t have any energy to accept it.”
A United Nations report released in April
said airstrikes were the third-highest cause of civilian casualties in
Afghanistan, killing 145 civilians and wounding 83 during the first quarter of
the year, a 41 percent increase compared with the same quarter in 2018. The
United States Air Force reported that American aircraft dropped 7,362 munitions
in Afghanistan in 2018, almost twice as much as in 2017 and the most since the
service started publicly keeping track in 2013.
Mr. Mubarez said he planned to rebuild his
house, but for now he is living in Kabul. He has gone to the Afghan government,
the United Nations and the Afghan Human Rights Commission looking for answers
and for help.
“Whether there were Taliban or not, they have
technology and modern equipment,’’ Mr. Mubarez said about the American and
Afghan military forces. “They can kill the enemy, but they only destroy my
home. So far neither local authorities or the defense ministry say that they
will investigate and take action. They just say that there was a mistake.”
