![]() ![]() Most of the names were redacted from the military investigation. “If they fled into the building, we were asking him to basically drop the building,” a Marine who was coordinating with the gunship testified. Ground troops directed an American gunship to demolish house after house where at least one insurgent took cover, without knowing who else was inside. Some troops were never warned of Azizabad’s civilian population, and the special operations commanders who did know unleashed devastating force from the air anyway. military intelligence machine culminated with the raid itself. The tangle of espionage and tribal infighting eventually drew in the very same military units that had helped empower the warlords in the first place. Those warlords fought each other for control of the weapons and money ArmorGroup was giving out. intelligence payroll to provide armed guards at an airfield on the western edge of Afghanistan. ![]() The problems began in 2007 when ArmorGroup, a private security company working on a Pentagon subcontract, hired two local warlords on the U.S. The records also reveal that the Defense Department has for years downplayed or denied the fatal mistakes surrounding the tragedy. Together, the records and interviews tell the story of a disaster that was months in the making as military and company officials ignored warnings about the men they had hired to provide intelligence and security. MORE: How we reported the deadly airstrike: A reporter's notebook from Afghanistan In addition, a reporter traveled to western Afghanistan to interview government officials, investigators, first responders, witnesses and the villagers who survived. A young man collapsed in grief by a pile of mud bricks where his home once stood – where his wife and four children had been sleeping TODAY also obtained Afghan government records, evidence collected by humanitarian groups, including the Red Cross, and a confidential United Nations investigation into the incident. A boy clutching a torn rug walked in a daze on top of the ruins. Villagers picked through the rubble of what had been an entire neighborhood, looking for remains to wrap in white linens for burial. Some were still in their pajamas, their hands inked with henna tattoos from the party preparations the night before. He dug graves deep enough to fit mothers with children, or children with children. There were too many dead and not enough shovels, so a local politician brought in heavy machinery from a nearby construction site. We are republishing our investigation from last year about a deadly airstrike - one of many - that contributed to where we are today.ĪZIZABAD, Afghanistan – Once the Americans left, the survivors started digging. Before exiting Afghanistan, the American government did not fully appreciate the power of the Taliban, how quickly the government would fall or the rift between Afghans and the U.S.
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