Afghans, including many rights activists and journalists, have responded with anger to an admission by the US that a drone strike had mistakenly killed 10 civilians near Kabul airport on August 29.
On Friday, the Pentagon said that its drone strike in Kabul, a day before the departure of the last US troops from the country, had been a "tragic mistake".
Responding to the US admission, the chairperson of the former Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission Shaharzad Akbar said that it was time for "reparations and justice" as the truth is acknowledged, in a tweet.
Well-known Afghan TV presenter Muslim Shirzad said that an apology could not cure the pain of the victims' families and that the least the US could do was pay compensation to the survivors.
"It seems that the Americans want to end everything with an apology," Shirzad told the DPA news agency.
An Afghan campaigner for Amnesty International, Samira Hamidi, went further, describing the strike as "genocide".
International researchers including the associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch, Patricia Gossman, called for a thorough and independent investigation, adding that such killings had happened repeatedly over the past 20 years, with "utter impunity".
"Words of regret are not enough," Gossman said.
A US drone strike near the Kabul airport killed 10 civilians, including seven children, on August 29.
Members of the US armed forces said they believed they had targeted an explosives-packed vehicle associated with the IS-K.
However, an investigation concluded that the attack has killed an engineer for the US aid group Nutrition and Education International, Zemari Ahmadi, and his nine family members.
Australian Associated Press
