.webp "Members of the Ahmadi family look at the mangled remains of a car on Sept. 18, 2021. The vehicle was hit in an Aug. 29 U.S. drone strike that killed Zamarai Ahmadi and nine members of his family. (Lorenzo Tugnoli/for The Washington Post)")
KABUL — By the time the American apology arrived, the lives of the Ahmadi family were already upended. And being falsely accused by the U.S. military of ties to the Islamic State was not the worst part of the ordeal.
There was their shattered family house. There were the nightmares, the bouts of crying and the screams triggered by the memory of a U.S. drone strike on Aug. 29 that killed 10 of their relatives, including seven children.
There were the fresh fears of persecution by the Taliban after the media spotlight on the family noted that some members, including survivors, worked for U.S.-based entities or the former Afghan security forces.
The Hellfire missile — the weapon used in the Pentagon’s capstone attack at the end of a two-decade war — also killed the family’s only breadwinner, Zamarai Ahmadi.
