No one died in the kabul airport explosion under the guns of the US military"? US media suspect that the military is "covering up the truth"

When the US troops withdrew from Afghanistan on August 26 last year, an explosion occurred at Kabul Airport that shocked the world, killing more than 180 people. The US Department of Defense recently released the results of the investigation into the explosion, saying that the incident was completely caused by a human bomb, and no one died under the guns of American and British soldiers. CNN published a lengthy investigative report on the 8th, expressing strong doubts about the Pentagon's above conclusions.

Does the U.S. shoot civilians?

The Kabul airport bombing killed 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops. The extremist group Islamic State Khorasan Branch (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the incident, but the scale of casualties caused by the explosion has long led to doubts about whether the U.S. military "deliberately" shot civilians after the explosion.

The U.S. military launched a three-and-a-half-month investigation into the case, questioning 139 people. The Pentagon released its findings on Friday saying it did not hit anyone despite the guns fired by U.S. and British soldiers after the blast. However, after CNN investigated the incident, it believes that the U.S. military did not communicate with any Afghan hospital employees or medical personnel other than allied forces, nor did it question any Afghan civilians, and its investigation has strong limitations.

CNN conducted a four-month investigation into the bombings, during which time it spoke to more than 70 witnesses and the families of the dead, reviewed medical records, and analyzed a variety of materials such as video, audio and photographs of the scene. The media quoted a number of witnesses at the scene as saying that shortly after the explosion, some soldiers opened fire on the public, some witnesses saw others being shot, and some were shot themselves. "[The American and British soldiers] didn't shoot in the air, they targeted people, it was deliberate." Nazir, 16, said. In response, Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said that the above claims of witnesses were related to the confusion of their memory after experiencing great trauma, and these claims had no factual basis.

However, hospital staff who treated the dead and injured in the bombing said some of the dead had gunshot wounds on their bodies. Relevant medical reports and documents also confirm this claim. However, medical staff said their identification of the gunshot wound was based on "wound appearance" and was not based on X-rays or autopsies. Urban told CNN that medical personnel were wrong in judging the wounds of the deceased and that the internal injuries of the deceased must be carefully examined to determine the cause of death. However, a doctor told CNN that with his 15 years of medical experience, he can easily distinguish the wounds caused by explosions and gunshots, which are very different.

How powerful is a bomb?

Can a single bomb kill 180 people? This is also where the Pentagon report raises doubts. A U.S. official said U.S. military experts estimated the bomb to be about 9 kilograms. However, the official noted that experts were not able to enter the scene until 13 hours after the explosion, and they estimated the size of the bomb by comparing it to previous ones. In addition to the 13 servicemen who died, 45 otherS were wounded, and those wounded were wearing body armor, Urban said. The spokesman said the number of casualties caused by the explosion and expert analysis showed that a 9-kilogram bomb could kill 160 to 170 people. Experts interviewed by CNN disagree on this claim. Some agree with Urban, while others argue that the damage to the surrounding walls after the explosion suggests that the bomb may not have been as powerful.

CNN acknowledged in its report that the realities of the Kabul airport explosion are limited: autopsies are not widespread in Afghanistan, so medical assessments are not authoritative; the quality of the live video is uneven and there is a "time gap." However, the information obtained by CNN after investigation still shows that the US and British militaries may not have fully described what happened after the explosion. In fact, for the US military, covering up the facts is nothing new. In November last year, the New York Times broke the news that the US military launched an airstrike in Baghdads, Syria, in 2019, resulting in a large number of civilian deaths, but deliberately covered up the incident.

The military is unhappy with the chaotic withdrawal of troops from the White House

CNN's investigative report pointed to the "cruelty" of the U.S. military, while the Washington Post's report revealed tuesday reflected the "chaos" of the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan. The investigation was launched in the wake of the Kabul airport bombing, but it was wide-ranging. Some US media said that this may be the most comprehensive official statement of the withdrawal operation so far. The 2,000-page report shows that the failure of the White House and the State Department to recognize the imminent security threat at the time led to the hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which put U.S. troops in danger and made the military very unhappy.

U.S. Marine Corps Commodore Farrell Sullivan was in charge of managing the Marines sent to Kabul to assist in the evacuation. He said there was a huge gap between the number of people the government expected to evacuate and the actual situation. Sullivan called on the government in mid-July to deliver supplies to Kabul airport in preparation for a massive evacuation, but his efforts were thwarted. Sullivan was also asked not to discuss the possibility of a mass evacuation with anyone other than British officials. According to Fox News, a U.S. State Department spokesman flatly denied the allegations in the investigative report on Tuesday and said the Department of Defense and the State Department "closely coordinated on the necessary plans and arrangements to implement the president's decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan."

The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan not only caused huge casualties and losses to Afghans, but also caused the United States and its allies "heavy losses." After the Taliban took over Afghanistan last August, the BBC cited research from Brown University in the United States to assess the damage from the 20-year war. According to Brown University, Afghan security forces lost 69,000 people, with civilians and the Taliban killing around 51,000. Since 2001, more than 3,500 Allied soldiers have died, about two-thirds of them Americans. Research from Brown University also shows that U.S. spending in this military operation amounts to $978 billion by 2020.

Source: Global Times