Pentagon won’t punish any troops over errant drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has accepted recommendations that no U.S. military personnel be disciplined for the errant Aug. 29 drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including an Afghan employee of a U.S. aid organization and seven children, a senior Pentagon official said Monday.

Military officials had said previously that the attack, conducted in the waning hours of U.S. efforts to leave Afghanistan, was not the result of criminal negligence. In November, the Air Force inspector general who led an independent investigation of the incident said that while the strike did not violate the laws of war, the evidence suggested that mistakes were made as a result of what he called confirmation bias on the part of the analysts and commanders involved.

That review did not recommend any punishments either, despite Pentagon leaders’ earlier admission that the strike was a “tragic mistake.”

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversaw the operation, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Austin’s decision was first reported by the New York Times.