'THEY ARE ALL DEAD'
HARROWING leaked footage has shown a series of US drone strikes in Afghanistan as a pilot admitted he killed two innocent Afghan civilians and a child by mistake.
The US drone operators, who were working in Helmand province in 2019, have questioned the purpose of the strikes amid the ongoing withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in recent weeks.
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The pilot and a number of other drone operators claimed the strikes carried out by the Task Force South West served little purpose when the Marines had essentially given up on Helmand.
"The drone strikes were punitive. Killing for the sake of killing," one of the operators told , which published the leaked footage and a series of journal entries from the pilots.
A second source said: "It's nihilistic, there is no point. It was clear that we were not making a difference."
In a distressing journal entry, one of the drone operators described the traumatic aftermath of the accidental killing of a young Afghan family.
"My productivity today was derailed. We killed two innocent men and a charger," he wrote, referring to military slang for a child.
"They were on a motorcycle and by dumb luck drove into the same intersection as our target as the Hellfire struck," he added.
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"We were trying to kill a guy with a radio I'd found earlier in the day.
"He rode right through the blast and kept going. I watched a passerby load the bodies into a truck and drive them to a hospital. They are all dead."
One of the drone pilots also described a devastating scene from 2019.
He had spotted an Afghan man under a tree speaking into a radio and as the man was walking towards his home, a Hellfire missile hit him.
"An old lady comes running out of the compound. She comes down on her hands and knees next to this dude and you can see the despair, she is pounding on the ground, hitting herself," he wrote.
"She was on her knees next to this guy with balled fists out at the sky, shaking her fists at me."
'WE KILLED A GUY'
And one member of a drone team described how he left for just 15 minutes to pick up his laundry during a lull in operations.
"When I came back my buddy was like, 'we killed a guy'," he said.
Barack Obama led an intense drone operation in Afghanistan - but Donald Trump took it even further, scrapping layers of authorisation and oversight to make drone usage far easier.
The pace of the strikes had been accelerated in 2019 order to force the Taliban to the table in Doha to negotiate American's exit from Afghanistan, experts said.
Dr Jonathan Schroden, Afghanistan and counter-terrorism analyst, told Connecting Vets: "I think there were two major factors that really drove that change in Afghanistan.
"It became increasingly clear that the Afghan security forces were not going to be capable enough to operate independently in a counterinsurgency type campaign anytime soon and it's arguable whether they would even ever get to that point on timelines that would be relevant."
Dr Schroden said the second factor was the "Trump administration decision to set aside the precondition that had existed before of insisting that the Afghan government be involved in any negotiations with the Taliban, and accepting the Taliban's condition for talks, which was that the US would engage the Taliban directly".
"That shift in policy, and the subsequent direct engagement in negotiations with the Taliban, led to this idea that the US needed to generate leverage in those talks," he said.
"Part of the way to do that or so that theory went was to increase military pressure on the Taliban."
AIRPORT CARNAGE
It comes as chaos punctuated by sporadic violence has gripped Kabul airport following the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan.
At least 21 people have been killed in crushes, falls and shootings at the airport since August 14 as troops race to rescue foreign nationals and Afghan allies.
Seven people including a toddler were crushed to death in a stampede on Saturday in harrowing scenes described as some of the worst since the Taliban took over.
Men, women and children were crushed together in 31C heat - many without provisions - as there were reports of people collapsing from exhaustion and asphyxiation.
Meanwhile, another Afghan woman - named only as Sara - told she had witnessed at least 15 people - including children shot dead since the Taliban took power.
"Please, get us out of here. The situation is very bad, we are trapped in a hell," she said.
Sara described the scenes outside the airport with crowds packed so tightly you cannot breath - with the situation growing worse every day as supplies run low amid a putrid stench of rubbish.
She said: "There is violence everywhere but every gate we go to is closed and no one gives us any information or shows any mercy."
'UTTERLY HORRENDOUS'
Sky News reporter Stuart Ramsay also described the "utterly horrendous scenes" and "absolute pandemonium" at the airport as he witnesses people "crushed to death".
British and US troops have been "firing into the air" to try make people step back, while the shouts for "medics and stretchers is almost continuous", Ramsey explained.
British paratroopers have been desperately trying to manage to chaos at the airport as the West race against time to evacuate its citizens and refugees.
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Around 5,000 Brits and Afghans who have been promised refuge in the UK are believed to be still stuck in the country at the mercy of extremists.
British defence chiefs are believed to be planning to end civilian rescue flights tomorrow or Friday so there is enough time to get UK forces out before America cuts and runs.
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Desperate Afghans continue endless wait outside Kabul airport, some standing in knee-deep water and waste
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