The botched US air raid killed 10 civilians in Kabul, most of them children
The Pentagon has released surveillance videos showing a US air strike that killed 10 civilians in the Afghan capital last year, one of the final American combat missions in the country as Washington ended its two-decade war.
Published by the New York Times on Wednesday, the declassified 25-minute video shows the moment an Afghan aid worker and nine other non-combatants, including seven children, were killed in the US strike, all captured by two drones flying over Kabul during the August 29, 2021 bombing raid.
While the military initially claimed the strike targeted members of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) who were transporting explosives – with one senior official deeming the operation “righteous” – it was later forced to backtrack and acknowledge that only civilians were killed in the attack.
Ahead of the strike, two MQ-9 Reaper drones trailed a white Toyota Corolla driven by a man later identified as Zemari Ahmadi, an aid worker with the US-based Nutrition and Education International. After following him for some time, Ahmadi’s car was struck as he pulled into the driveway of his home, seen around eight minutes into the footage. The blast engulfed the property, instantly killing Ahmadi and several children who rushed out to greet him, as well as other family members nearby.
A probe by the Air Force concluded that the operation did not violate any laws and recommended no disciplinary action. Though the investigation did find that surveillance footage showed the presence of at least one child near the site of the strike about two minutes before it was launched, the Pentagon said that would have been easy to miss in real-time.
“[In] two independent reviews that I conducted, the physical evidence of a child was apparent at the two-minute point. But it is 100 percent not obvious; you have to be looking for it,” Air Force Inspector General Sami Said told reporters in November following the inquiry, insisting the massacre was a “mistake” and not an act of “negligence.”
The declassified footage was obtained in a months-long Freedom of Information Act suit led by the Times, which was the first to uncover evidence the drone strike may not have killed any IS terrorists as the military initially claimed. The Pentagon also attempted to pin the loss of innocent life on a “secondary explosion” near Ahmadi’s home – suggesting he was indeed carrying a bomb in his car – but later said the fireball was likely caused by a propane tank, effectively abandoning any notion that he was a militant.
Jan 19 (IPS) – Not for the first time, global energy markets are in turmoil. Internationally traded gas prices more than quadrupled in 2021. In their wake, many energy suppliers have gone bust and household bills across Europe are set to soar. Energy prices are driving up the cost of living and inflation, but this is also a moment to realise the old saying: “never waste a good crisis”.
Last year joined the list of the seven warmest years on record, the UN weather agency said on Wednesday, and was also the seventh consecutive year when the global temperature has been more than 1°C above pre-industrial levels; edging closer to the limit laid out under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
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“We are committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and will continue to provide Ukraine the support it needs,” a senior State Department official said.
With enhanced tactile feedback, the patch allows an operator to control a robot remotely and feel what it feels
Researchers in China have developed a wireless flexible skin patch that enables the exchange of tactile stimuli between a human operator and a robot. Crafted by a team of scientists from City University of Hong Kong, Dalian University of Technology, Tsinghua University, and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, the device is sensitive enough to capture movement and stress factors, for instance twisting and turning.
While there is already technology that allows humans to operate robots remotely, what makes this ‘electronic skin’ patch stand out is the fact that it is far less bulky, easier to handle and, last but not least, apparently provides more feedback than its predecessors.
In an article published in Science Advances journal, the Chinese researchers explain in more detail what technical features make that possible.
Patches are placed on the operator’s joints, with sensors reacting when a patch is bent, and sending the corresponding signal to the robot directly via Bluetooth, or alternatively, through a local network or the internet. The sensors are made of piezoresistive materials, the electrical resistance of which changes when subjected to mechanical stress, thus allowing the capture of the operator’s movements.
The system allows two-way feedback, as similar sensors are attached to parts of the robot. Signals are sent over to the electronic skin, where they activate tiny magnets that vibrate at different frequencies corresponding to the pressure applied. So sensitive is the device that the operator can tell between softer and harder pieces of rubber held by a robot, the researchers claim.
With the use of Bluetooth, the feedback signals are delivered in an impressive four microseconds, with that figure increasing manifold when operating through a Wi-Fi network, according to the article. However, regardless of how the data is transmitted, the delay is below the 550 microseconds an average human takes to react to tactile stimuli anyway.
The device’s battery allows for more than an hour of non-stop work, while in standby mode it can last for up to two weeks.
Although still a prototype, the system could come in handy down the road, with bomb disposal and radioactive waste cleanup being just some of the areas where robotic assistance would likely be appreciated.
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