U.S. Winds Down Afghanistan Occupation Like It Began, with Drone Strikes & Civilian Casualties

U.S. troops in Afghanistan are racing to evacuate people from the country ahead of Tuesday's withdrawal deadline as the Kabul airport is targeted by rocket fire from militant groups. The rocket attacks come just days after over 175 people, including 13 U.S. troops, died after a suicide bomb outside the airport, with the group ISIS-K claiming responsibility for the attack. The Pentagon has publicly acknowledged that some of the people killed outside the airport on Thursday may have been shot dead by U.S. servicemembers in the panic after the suicide bombing. The U.S. retaliated over the weekend with two airstrikes the Pentagon says targeted more potential suicide bombers, but local residents say the strikes also killed Afghan civilians, including as many as six children. "We see how the war on terror in Afghanistan started and how it is ending now: It's with drones and civilian casualties," says Emran Feroz, an Austro-Afghan journalist and author. He says the U.S. airstrikes in the final days of the war — and the innocent people they killed — are emblematic of the entire 20-year conflict. "In many rural areas, these things happened on a daily basis," says Feroz.

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