When questioned about President Joe Biden's reaction to a drone strike in Afghanistan that killed ten people, the White House evoked personal tragedies and declined to say if someone in the line of command should be held accountable.
"As a human being, as a president, somebody who has overseen loss in a variety of scenarios, both as a leader and personally, his reaction is, it is a tragedy," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday.
Joe Biden wants "thorough" investigation of Us drone strike
The Pentagon revealed on Friday that the drone strike killed ten innocent people, including seven children and an aid worker, rather than a terrorist posing a threat to Americans. Prior to the Pentagon's statement, Biden was briefed on Friday morning.
Psaki declined to say if a military commander should be held responsible instead of pointing to the operation's inquiry and circumstances. Biden and others close to him have frequently referenced his personal struggles as evidence of the president's empathy, Washington Examiner reported.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier this year that Biden had his "own personal reasons for feeling very deeply" about a case involving a teenage motorcyclist killed by a suspected CIA agent driving on the wrong side of the road in England, alluding to the president's first wife, Neilia, and daughter Naomi, who died in a car crash in 1972.
Per Daily Mail, the White House said Monday that President Joe Biden wants a "thorough" government investigation of the US drone strike that killed an Afghan charity worker and his family, including seven children.
After the Pentagon revealed at a Friday afternoon briefing that it had not knocked out an ISIS target as the administration first said, Psaki faced several questions about the strike, which the Pentagon now considers a "terrible mistake."
US drone strike in Afghanistan killed civilians
According to a bombshell report released on Saturday, the CIA provided a warning that children could be present at the location of the botched US drone strike in Kabul only seconds before the missile hit the car, killing ten innocent people.
According to three sources, an urgent warning that civilians were likely in the area and that children may be inside the target vehicle arrived only moments too late, moments after the military launched the Hellfire missile at the target and seconds before it impacted.
It is not clear how much time passed between the missile's launch and the intel warning to residents in the area. It's also unknown whether the warning reached the people who approved the missile launch.
However, the report suggests that there was still another critical intelligence breach that resulted in the deaths of the seven children and three adults killed in the strike on August 29.
Psaki declined to specify whether anybody would be fired or held responsible for the drone attack, which the Pentagon first said killed ISIS-K "planners and facilitators" of the August 26 suicide bombing that killed 13 US military personnel. The secretary also encouraged Americans to keep in mind that the operation was carried out in response to ISIS-K threats to US forces, as per Fox News.
Related Article: Kabul Drone Strike: Biden Administration's Devastating Attack Kills Innocent Children, US Admits Affecting Civilians in Afghanistan
