The family of Zemari Ahmadi, the Afghan aid worker who was erroneously targeted in an Aug. 29 drone strike, remains in Afghanistan despite their desire to leave.
The Department of Defense has repeatedly spoken with Nutrition and Education International, the aid organization that employed Ahmadi before his death, about his family’s safety in Afghanistan, their desire to come to the U.S., and about the possibility of ex-gratia payments.
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NEI President Dr. Steven Kwon told the Washington Examiner on Thursday, more than 10 weeks after the strike occurred, that their “legal team is making a [sic] progress in negotiating with [the] Pentagon for both evacuation and compensation for the surviving families of Zemari Ahmadi.”
The ACLU is representing NEI in the discussions, and Hina Shamsi, the director of American Civil Union’s National Security Project, told the Washington Examiner a day later, “The grieving family members and NEI employees are at high risk as a result of the U.S. government’s actions, and we are urgently pressing the Defense Department to evacuate them.”
Defense officials have repeatedly affirmed in the aftermath of the botched strike that Ahmadi did not have terrorist ties and was not a threat to the U.S. military, which was in the midst of conducting a non-combatant evacuation operation in the final days of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
Days before the strike, an ISIS-K terrorist detonated a suicide bomb at the gates of the airport where the evacuations were taking place, killing 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 civilians, and there was intelligence pointing to the possibility of another attack.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters earlier this week that DOD is “still working out the details of the ex-gratia payments.”
“We are working closely with his former employer, NEI, to try to affect that in the most responsible, safest way,” he added. “And we are also in frequent contact as a matter of fact, as recently as last week, in written contact with NEI to try to get more information so that we can affect the relocation of those family members. But it has Undersecretary Kahl’s personal attention, he’s working this himself. And we’re going to continue to get at. The Secretary was very clear that he wants to support their relocation.“
Kirby first noted Austin’s support behind the idea of bringing Ahmadi’s family to the United States back on Sept. 20.
Kahl and Kwon spoke in mid-October, where the DOD official “reiterated his sincere condolences on behalf of the Department of Defense for the loss of life that resulted from the August 29 strike in Kabul,” according to a readout from the Pentagon. During their conversation, Kwon described Ahmadi as “like a son to me.”
In a statement from the ACLU about the call, they said that NEI’s “primary concern is for the safety and welfare of Mr. Ahmadi’s remaining relatives,” and NEI called for military officials to “urgently evacuate and resettle Ahmadi family members and NEI’s employees at risk, compensate survivors, and conduct a meaningful investigation into the strike.”
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U.S. Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said investigated the strike, and he concluded there were no illegalities with the strike, though he issued recommendations to prevent similar mistakes, and Secretary Austin signed off on his conclusions.
“I believe that leaders in this department should be held to account for high standards of conduct and leadership, and that’s who we are. And I believe that our troops understand that,” Austin told reporters on Wednesday. “Again, when we have a civilian casualty, we investigate that by standard procedure and again, we’ll look at policies and procedures and make sure that we’re as tight as possible going forward.”
