U.S. deaths in drone strike due to miscommunication, report says
The Pentagon says Marines in Afghanistan and the crew controlling the drone in Nevada were unaware analysts watching the firefight via live video in Indiana had doubts about the targets' identity.
Reporting from Washington— A Marine and a Navy medic ****** by a U.S. drone airstrike were targeted when Marine commanders in Afghanistan mistook them for Taliban fighters, even though analysts watching the Predator's video feed were uncertain whether the men were part of an enemy *****.
Those are the findings of a Pentagon investigation of the first known case of friendly fire deaths involving an unmanned aircraft, the April 6 ****** that ****** Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, 26, and Navy Hospitalman Benjamin D. Rast, 23.
The 381-page report, which has not been released, concludes that the Marine officers on the scene and the Air ***** crew controlling the drone from half a world away were unaware that analysts watching the firefight unfold via live video at a third location had doubts about the targets' identity.
The incident closely resembles another deadly mistake involving a Predator in early 2009. In that ******, at least 15 Afghan civilians were ****** after a Predator crew mistook them for a group of Taliban preparing to ****** a U.S. special ****** unit.
