Noah Shachtman
Security

Despite Precautions, U.S. Airstrikes Kill Afghan Allies

An American airstrike mistakenly killed nine Afghan Army soldiers overnight. It’s the latest in a long series of unfortunate incidents, in which U.S jets inadvertently kill Afghan civilians or allies. And it’s all happening while the Air Force takes more precautions than ever to keep such casualties to a minimum. This month’s Air Force magazine […]

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An American airstrike mistakenly killed nine Afghan Army soldiers overnight. It's the latest in a long series of unfortunate incidents, in which U.S jets inadvertently kill Afghan civilians or allies. And it's all happening while the Air Force takes more precautions than ever to keep such casualties to a minimum.

This month's Air Force magazine goes inside the headquarters of the air war, the combined air and space operations center (CAOC). Officers there are relying on everything from new munitions to a battery of lawyers to keep the airstrikes on target.

The Air Force is also using longer bomb fuses. Delaying an explosion by just a few milliseconds can mean that the bomb gets buried deeper into the ground before exploding, buffering its force.

"We know how far the frag pattern goes on every weapon," said Col. Gary L. Crowder, commander of the Air Force’s 609th Air and Space Operations Center. "We know how far they go if I blow it up in the air, or 10 feet underground..."

Among the 50 or so troops analyzing intelligence on the floor of the operations center, one finds a military lawyer on hand around the clock… "The guys on the ground are always concerned about somebody second-guessing them when they’re getting shot at," said Col. Bill Carranza, the chief JAG officer within the CAOC. "My job is to give them options."

And yet, nine American allies are dead. An the Taliban has another propaganda win.

[Photo: USAF]

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