Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before Congress this week about the administration’s botched withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan last month.
On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) asked some pointed questions of Blinken about an “over the horizon” drone strike against a target initially confirmed by the Pentagon as an ISIS-K terror agent driving a suicide bomb car toward the Kabul airport.
The U.S. military was still present at the airport at the strike, ensuring security along the airport’s perimeter and entrances. The strike came in the days after a suicide bomb attack at the airport killed 13 U.S. service members and injured numerous others.
The Pentagon’s announcement on August 29 indicated that the drone strike killed “multiple suicide bombers” at the time immediately after the attack.
Later reporting by the New York Times has called the original Pentagon account into question. The paper stated that it had reviewed the evidence that indicates the driver of the car who was killed in the strike was Zemari Ahmadi, an aid worker since 2006 for Nutrition and Education International. The reporting also indicated that no explosive materials were inside the vehicle that was hit.
Sen. @RandPaul: "The guy the Biden administration droned: was he an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative?"
Sec. Blinken: "I don't know because we're reviewing it."
Sen. Paul: "You'd think you'd kind of know before you off somebody with a predator drone." pic.twitter.com/kGWSuTySho
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 14, 2021
Paul asked Blinken if the targeted person was “an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative.” Blinken responded by saying that “the administration” is reviewing the strike and that a “full assessment” would be provided later.
Paul followed up by asking whether Blinken didn’t know or “won’t tell us.” Blinken responded by saying he didn’t know because it was being reviewed. Paul told Blinken that “you would think you would kind of know” if the target was an ISIS-K terror agent or an aid worker before “you off somebody with a predator drone.”
Paul added that the drone bombing attacks ordered during the Obama administration that killed civilians show that there “is blowback to that.”
