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Kabul airport location4/28/2023 “All the civilian casualties were attributed to the blast itself.”ĬNN also obtained medical documents and a hospital statement confirming that 11 of the dead had been hit by bullets. “Nothing in the investigation - we interviewed all these Marines - led us to conclude that any of that fire struck civilians in any way,” said the official. “They did not see if the rounds struck the male, but they did not see him again either,” Urban added.īut a senior military official familiar with the investigation denied anyone was hit by gunfire. It was not clear how many rounds were fired, but it was likely less than a magazine - 30 rounds - as it did not require a magazine change, he said. In another incident, a unit of Marines just inside the airport’s outer walls opened fire on a man seen holding an AK-47, CENTCOM spokesman Urban said in a separate statement to CNN. Curtis, said Friday the British fired 25 to 35 rounds over the crowd. These also hit no one, according to the spokesperson. “This individual of interest ultimately fled unharmed,” he added.Īt about the same time, UK troops fired a small number of warning shots into the air from a tower inside a nearby compound called the Zohak Village in the hopes of preventing a “crowd surge,” according to a UK defense spokesperson. In one incident, Marines “fired four warning shots over the head of an individual who displayed concerning behavior and appeared to be observing the casualty site,” Douglas said. One of the US investigators, Colonel CJ Douglas, told reporters Friday that US Marines and troops from the United Kingdom did fire after the blast over the canal at two “military-aged males,” but he added that none of the bullets hit their target or any Afghans. “The testimony of people being shot is not, however, supported by any of the other facts as we know them.” “The testimony you describe is not inconsistent with the recollections of people with jumbled memories from a concussive event who witnessed trauma and are doing their best to piece together what their brain is unlikely to remember clearly,” said Captain Bill Urban, the spokesman for US Central Command (CENTCOM), the part of the US military overseeing Afghanistan, among other countries. The US military confirmed only American and British troops were in the area at the time - but they say witnesses who claim to have seen people being shot were mistaken. “They said nothing - they just shooted people.” The next day, Noorullah’s family told him that Suhail had died after being hit by what appeared to be a bullet. He recalled soldiers standing in front of him. Noorullah noted that the bullets seemed to hit those who tried to flee, so he turned to a family lying next to him and said: “Please don’t run, they will shoot you.” Noorullah said he heard shooting as he clambered up the canal wall, so he dropped to the ground and hid among dead bodies. He said he turned to his cousin, Suhail, who appeared uninjured by the blast. “In front of me, people were getting shot at and falling down.”Īnother survivor, Noorullah Zakhel, was also standing in the canal when the blast went off. Nazir, 16, who was at the airport with his brother, his brother’s wife and their children, said the shooting seemed to start straight after the explosion. Two forensic blast analysts said it was unlikely that so many people could have died in a single person-borne explosion, though other experts told CNN it was possible. Survivors and families of some of the dead insisted some of the dead and wounded were shot. Hospital statements and patients’ medical records reference bullet wounds. Medical staff and administrators at five hospitals that received victims from the attack noted the presence of bullet wounds, and one doctor described removing bullets himself. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the bombing, which caused the highest US death toll from a single incident in Afghanistan in more than a decade.īut a four-month CNN investigation raises hard questions over what really happened that day - and how so many people died.ĬNN spoke to more than 70 witnesses and families of the dead, reviewed medical records and analyzed video, photos and audio of the scene. The British military say their troops fired into the air to clear a pressing crowd, but nobody was hit. A three-and-a-half-month US military investigation involving interviews with 139 people concluded that while US Marines opened fire twice after the blast, none of the bullets hit anyone, according to a detailed media briefing by the investigating team on February 4. The Pentagon said Friday all 170 Afghans and 13 United States service members who died that day were killed in the blast.
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