coolness of the glow child back down to stand. 20 years of war. follow me from boyhood to manhood. a life that has no no p shaped by hardship. resilience and adventure. the unique film that captures the conflict in a way it has never been seen before. whitney on there i as thousands cue to cast their vote in russian elections tag shines bow to kremlin prussia removing a tactical loading up, which favored opposition? candidates? ah, hello, i'm marianne. my thing in london in watching algae 0 coming off on the program. a

sanctions warning on e c o, the u. s. government threatens further measures as both sides of the conflict. don't do more to find peace as china eyes afghan, histones lost on taps. copper is as its concern of the safety of archaeological treasures and austria government in court accused of not doing enough to contain the spread of corona. var just de resorts now considered europe's ground 0. ah, hello, welcome to the program or apple and google has removed a smartphone app created by rushes opposition, which told people whom to vote for in order to be candidates backed by the ruling party. the kremlin had pressured, the tech joins to take me down. as russians voting a 3 day election for the state legislature, many candidates opposed to live in prison,

have been excluded from the ballot. the president himself voted online because he's isolating off to an outbreak of cove it out there is. it's smith has this report now from the russian capital moscow. the kremlin will be hoping this long line of voters can be relied upon to by united russia. the pro vladimir putin party wants to hold onto the super majority in the state duma. lo, house a problem, they face an hours long wait on a cold moscow morning. they put voted anytime in the next 3 days. the election commission says the military personnel coming off the night shift, a russian independent electric monitoring group goal often pointed out the lack of people in uniform. what the thing is that more more russian citizens don't believe in the legitimacy of these elections. it's just to show, nobody actually believed in free elections in the soviet union, just became accepted for the communists to get 99 percent of the vote boot and

wants to create the same status quo that united russia will always have a super majority. and people will make peace with that. the only entreat now is whether it's only the kremlin that can influence voters or small voting come to the idea of smart or tactical voting came from allies of jailed opposition activists, alexi vonny. they've drawn up a list of candidates most likely to defeat united, russia, and so at least to deprive the party of its super majority. but the smart voting up where you enter your voting district and it tells you who should vote for. now the kremlin has told apple and google this app is illegal, and both companies are now taking it off their stores. united russia had just 27 percent support in pre election polls. sure. there's widespread public dissatisfaction with corruption and all living standards. but the russian president still enjoys around 60 percent approval. vladimir putin, his isolating after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for covey . 19, he voted online. as you can see,

under sanitary constraints and quarantine, i did my civic duty online in electronic format. such voting system is used in many countries of the world and has been used in moscow several times. many falling stations in russia like this so much of friday, quiet opposition groups. so they want their supporters to wait until as late as possible on sunday to vote. to reduce the risk of the ballot being interfered with . boats may al jazeera moscow, the united states as threatening more sanctions if a violence continues. and if you're appears northern to region, a new executive order would allow state and treasury departments to target individuals and organizations who are involved in the fighting. it's intended to pressure the european governments on the 2 great people's liberation front. to begin the talks, thousands of people have been killed and at least 2000000 displaced since violence broke out into grey. in november, o abigail,

just tearing from us command now captain, commander, mackenzie, excuse me, speaking in washington. and 48 hours prior to the strike sensitive intelligence indicated that the compound point number one on the map. and let's bring the map up now please and we're just going to bring this up. hopefully you have an opportunity to see it here as we go forward. john, can you see the map there? john, can you, can you hear me now? are in the process hard copies. okay. rather than i'm just going to continue based on that. then john, in the 48 hours prior to the strike sensitive intelligence, indicated that the compound at point number one on the map was being used by isis k

players used to facilitate future attacks. we were also receiving a significant number of reports indicating multiple avenues of attack, which were being planned simultaneously to which isis kay would attempt to harm our forces. including with rockets, suicide explosive, this in vehicle borne, improvised explosive devices. in fact, in the 36 hours proceeding, the strike our leaders on the ground at the airport and in the strike cell received more than 60 different pieces of intelligence related to imminent threats. with some intelligence corroborating in some conflict with events observed from are you a these which were flying about cobble throughout the day? one of the most recurring aspects of the intelligence was it isis. k would utilize a white toyota corolla as a key element in the next attack. because the compound that point number one was our strongest lead for the series of image attacks. we initiated an intense

surveillance of the compound with as many as 6 am to 9 reapers on the morning of 29 august. at 8 52 am local time on 29 august, a white toyota corolla arrived to point number one. the compound we believed to be a key area of interest associated with imminent threats to the airport. 2 adult males exit of the vehicle met with an adult male in the compound, and received a bag from him. the corolla in the part of the compound heading south and we followed the vehicle. at 9 o 5 am. the toyota corolla picked up a 3rd adult mail carrying a bag at point number 2, and then continued south. at 935 the parole arrived at the compound point number 3 . ready which we now know to include an office of nutrition and education internation. in all 3 adult males in the vehicle entered the building on the

compound. at 11 19 am, 3 adult males unloaded bags and jugs from the truck of the vehicle before departing the compound. at 11 22 am heading south. at approximately this time, us forces were notified of a sensitive intelligence collection indicating that an ice case cell later in cobble was dropping off supplies. at 1211 p. m. the corolla arrived at point number 4, and at least 2 adult male occupants exit of the vehicle in front of an office building before returning to their vehicle and departing at 1 27 pm, heading west and then south. at 2 o'clock pm, the corolla returned to the compound at point number 3. subsequently, multiple adult males were observed loading the truck of the vehicle, the truck of the vehicle, where the items assessed at the time to the explosives. before departing at 3 47 pm,

with 4 adult males heading north at 4 11 pm, the corolla returned to point number 2 and dropped off one adult male carrying a bag. then continued north. after driving near point number one, the corolla dropped off one adult male on the road at point number 5, which is roughly several 100 meters north point number one. at 439 p. m. the corolla dropped office last passenger on the road at point number 6. at 4 51 pm. literally arrived at point number 7. and back into a compound that was approximately 3 kilometers from the airport, which was the closest it came to the airport all day. we were very concerned that the vehicle could move quickly and be at the airport boundary. in a matter of moments, by this time we'd observe the vehicle for about 8 hours. while in the compound the

vehicle was observed, being approached by a single adult male assessed at the time to be a co conspirator. the strike was executed at this time because the vehicle was stationary and to reduce the potential for civilian casualties. the single hill found hill fire missile was fused to detonate inside the vehicle, the further minimize the chance for civilian casualties. it struck the big vehicle at $453.00 p. m, which produced an explosive event and followed the flames significantly larger than a hell far missile would have been expected to produce. it is my assessment that leaders on the ground and the strike cell that achieved a reasonable certainty at the time of the strike. to designate the vehicle as an imminent threat to us forces at the airport in that they made this self defense strike in accordance with established rules of engagement. not assessment is based upon interviews with leaders on the ground and members of the strike cell owner review of the intelligence available to the team at the time of the strike in on

the team's interpretation of how this vehicle and its occupants actions were confirming. the intelligence that they were seeing it is further my assessment, that distracting we're convinced at the time of the strike that the area was clear civilians and that they had taken prudent steps in regards to weapon during the strike, to minimize the potential for civilian casualties. finally, it is my assessment that they did believe, as reported that there was a secondary explosion. our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake. burst our stress. this was not a rushed strike. a strike ceiling deliberately fallen and observed this vehicle and its occupants for 8 hours, while cross checking what they were seeing, all available intelligence to develop a reasonable certainty of the threat that his vehicle posed to our forces. second, while the initial reports indicated a secondary explosion,

the initial investigation could only conclude that it was possible to probable presence of external accelerates. that can include either explosive material in the vehicle or an ignition of the gas of the vehicle. subsequent analysis could not rule out the presence of a small amount of explosive material, but determined that the most likely cause was the ignition of a gas from a propane tank located immediately behind the car. such an ignition would have created the brief but massive fireball, or you to directly up and all of the compound that was observed in the video and displayed in this photo. if we get that next photo, what police they have several kind of. finally, while the strike still reported, john can hear me. okay, i got you sir. roger finally, while the strike still reported the presence of 2 adult males,

one inside the vehicle and one outside the vehicle at the time of the strike, the cell initiated a review of their footage immediately following the report, a civilian casualties and determine that a few a few partially obscured forms are briefly visible. moving in the compound. this led to my initiation of an investigation within 24 hours of the strike. a comprehensive review of all the available footage and reporting on the matter. let us to a final conclusion that as many as 10 civilians were killed and the strike including up to 7 children. the time of the strike based upon all the intelligence and what was being afforded. i was confident that the strike had averted an imminent threat to our forces at the airport. based upon that assessment, i and other leaders in the apartment repeatedly asserted the validity of this strike. i'm here today to set the record straight and acknowledge our mistakes. i will in my remarks with the same notice sincere and profound condolences to the

family and friends of those who died in this tragic strike. we are exploring the possibility of ex bratia payments. and i'll finish by saying we're on our forces. so we've been just listening there to san con, command, the general kennedy mackenzie, speaking about that us start drones striking a very densely populated area of the afghan capital kabul on august 29th. just a couple of weeks ago. of course, this was in the midst of a very difficult and chaotic evacuation, in which us forces were evacuating us nationals from afghanistan as well as one rural africans. and this strike took place actually, while not far, it took place not far from from the airport. in kabul, i think the statement is continuing. hudson, the audio troubles are,

but it's back now when we were growing, i would not qualify the inter operation. those terms. it will anybody be held responsible? we are in the process right now of continuing that considering that line of investigation. and i have nothing for you now because it involves personnel issues . please identify yourself in your out when you ask your question, dave? more serious news. so you said to see you started following this car after it showed up at the place associated with prices in retrospect is that was that place associated with isis? and this was described as an over the horizon stripe, which is what the us it's going to be relying on from now on the stand. so what is, what is this incident say about the reliability of future strikes

against terrorist threats and f canister today. so i'll, i'll take the 1st part of your question and then begin with that. so point one on the map. we do assess very definitely associated with isis. in fact, a little less than 24 hours later rockets will be launched from that point against the airfield. so we had very good intelligence mega saying, point one on the map was in fact the area where i just was centered. so i think that's a, that was a, that was a very good intelligence supported that, that, that belief now is the 2nd part of your question about whether this is and with this will affect future th operations. let me be clear, this was a self defense strike taken under self defense rules of engagement based on an imminent threat to attack us. that is not the way that we would strike over an o t h mission going into afghanistan against isis k targets for one thing that will not be a self defense, right?

it will be done under different it'll be different done under different rules of engagement. so, and we will have a lot more opportunity probably than we had under this extreme time pressure to take a look at the target. just do use afraid that you'll be familiar with the soap, the target with multiple platforms to have an opportunity to develop extended pattern of life. none of these things were available to us given the urgent and pressing nature of the threat to our forces. are you considering reparations for the victims here and what is what happened with a strike? say to you about the override that capability? we've been hearing so much about what are the risks involved with carrying out strikes when you have people on the ground in afghanistan and going forward? sure, so as i said, my statement, we are considering exploration or reparations for this. and that ultimately the matter for policy, so we're in consultation with the offices sector, dismissed the terminal way forward there, as you will also understand, very difficult to reach out on the ground in afghanistan, you know, to actually reach people. but we are very interested in doing that and we'll,

and we'll, and we'll move on it based on our ability to do that. so your question about this an o t h, i'll sort of echo. when i said that to david, i would reject a parallel between this operation in a, in an over the horizon strike, i guess, slices tre, targets. again, because we will have an opportunity to further develop the target in time to look at pattern of life that time was not available to us because this was a threat to our forces. it's important diane decides that we did not have the luxury of time to develop pattern of life and to do a number of other things. we struck into under the theory of reasonable certainty. probably our strikes and the industry and going forward will be under a higher standards. that's a policy matter, not a purely military matter. but i don't think you should draw any conclusions about our ability to strike and ask in a stand against isis. j target's in the future based on this particular strike. tony, we don't have a if you said that you had to indeed just about

a threat. him anything from white so you're so was in the, these intelligence was not good all there was another. why do you, which was ventless and nothing happened from another wise toyota. so, so i would tell you this. clearly our intelligence was wrong on this particular white toyota corolla. at the same time, we undertook a variety of things to make it hard for them to get at us during this period of time. we close the gates, which we didn't want to do at each time during this period of time. as for protection, we were very where there are a sort overhead which we know is there, you know, often has a suppressive effect on their activities. we still took rockets the next day. as you know, when they farther rockets from near point one in from other places actually near the route of this vehicle. but i would tell you unequivocally in this case, clearly the intelligence was wrong on this vehicle. and we certainly regret that,

as i've been very clear. i go to the jennifer style our new york times jennifer, you there might be a point that different matter, john, for after this. all right. ok. lou martinez a be see you there louis. okay, nothing heard nancy usa. thank you jennifer. bye a couple points to make if i'm understanding the likely you follow the wrong go to for from the beginning in that is you weren't falling one vehicle and mistaking it for another one. and also in your initial statement, you said that there was no initial reports of casualties. it appears that the release some concern about civilian casualties very early on. so on what basis did you make that statement? and finally, was any intelligence that you were using gather from the taliban?

thank you. so let me begin with the last question. nothing we did was get from the taliban. and i should be and i should be very clear about that. we've selected this car based on its movement at a targeted area of interest to us, a known targeted area of interests us and we held it throughout the day. clearly based on the end result. that was a mistake. and i have acknowledge that military time during this time, are you tracking any other suspicious activity in cobble that might have also been part of the threat? and do you have any intelligence from after this drone strike? that's just what happened to the imminent threat afterward. sure, so as, as, as i know to my comments we have over 60 very. ready very high caliber reports of imminent threat to our forces in and around in, around cobble. typically those are signals based,

but there are also some human and other human intelligence as well. so we have a variety of sources for the, for that intelligence. we believe that the strike we took a couple of days prior of an anger har actually had an effect on climbing down because we got a key attack later in that strike. we believe that disrupted some of their plants. additionally, we did things to make it harder for them to get to us. for example, we close the gates, the gates as we know, or a particular point where we're vulnerable. so we decided not to process people and we hunker down for a little bit of time while this threat was still there. so there were over 60 clear threat vectors that we were dealing with during this period of time, including as i've noted before, rocket attacks that occurred a little bit after this from locations that are displayed on the graphic that you have. like a really quick follow up at not in terms of the number of threats, but the number of other cars or groups of people that you were following that day. were you tracking anybody else as closely we tracked a lot of other people. we didn't track anybody as we,

as closely as we did this because of the limitations on our resources. and frankly, you know, we thought this was a good lead. we were wrong. thanks john. john, we can use that alex mark workforce. you know, and you mentioned that immediately following the attack, you saw shapes in the video that lady to believe that this necessitated investigation that there could have been more civilians there on september. first we heard from general milly, who called this a righteous strike and this is several days later, did you at the time several days later, also believe that this was a righteous strike. and could you talk about your erosion of confidence over the fall and that the next subsequent 2 weeks of the investigation? i think we issued a statement from us since we're coming out about 6 hours after the strike knowledge, the possibility civilian casualties. so when you from the very beginning, there was a possibility civilian casualties. i think we still thought we had good reason to have taken that strike. and it took us gathering the facts to change that we took.

we didn't, as you will understand and appreciate. we didn't take the strike because we thought we were wrong. we took the strike because we thought we had a good target. it takes a little while to uncover some of those things. we moved and worked as rapidly as we could and actually i think we were to streamline rapidly to get this information out and the major problem. fine. thank you. thank you. so on, despite numerous intelligence reports and warning on, on the $26.00, we had that tragic attack on the airport, 13 us service members were killed in addition to the 10s of again, civilians. again, on the 29th and this strike, another tragedy took place. as you said, 10 civilians were killed among them. 7 children. is that a failure of intelligence or leadership and against them? and what do you intend to do about that? thank you. well, i'll say a so we had 2 events. we have the tackled abigail. we had this and we had this strike, you know, the abbey gave attack your, your in,

in combat with an enemy who is alive and has his own will. and sometimes that enemy is going to, is going to his plans are just going to work. you can't cover every eventuality all the time despite our very best efforts to do that. and we took every precaution we could at abigail. in fact, when we had, when we had threats develop over the 48 hours at fall. as i've noted, we close the gate in order to it recognizing it would reduce our ability to bring people in. but the same time we thought there was the best thing we could do to actually reduce our attack surface if you will, to protect our forces. there are also a number of attracts that reported. these are 2 that you know about because they're high visibility we're talking about and others were toward it and did not occur. so the silence of those attack should meet something to unfortunately it's very difficult approve the negative tone joint pass. bloomberg. 2 quick questions. are you going to release the report of investigation to in your fact gathering? to what extent did you will rely on the new york times as extensive video

investigation, and then to talk with n g o. course civilian eye witnesses at the scene? so, repeat the 1st question again for me, you'll be releasing the final report of investigation. a final report of the report is a highly classified document that we procedures that would have to be followed to declassify elements or that document if it were to be released. and i'll just leave that obviously, that question there. as we in fact worked our investigation. we use all available sources of information to inform us as we went forward. certainly that included some of the stuff in new york times did. it also include our own extensive resources in this area which we looked at. so we tried to go everywhere. we could not overlook anything, is we try to build a picture? how about it all the investigation or the fact gathering? no. thanks. general mckenzie lucas, tom. right. so we've been listening to us and con commander general and mackenzie

speaking about. he was trying to strike me off, can capital cobble describing it as a tragic mistake? can, civilians were killed in that strike, including 7 children. the youngest child was just 2 years old. general mackenzie said that the intelligence was regarding the isis k group was quote, wrong regarding the vehicle that was targeted and destroyed. and this strike reparations have been considered to those effected but obviously here in admission by the united states, that innocent civilians were killed and try and strike and the investigation has concluded. it was a tragic mistake. well shabby time. c has been following this and joins us live now from washington. and this really does raise some very serious questions and concerns about the rules of engagement, particularly now us is withdrawn from the country and how this risk is going to be managed going forward. the risk of further civilian casualties,

not just the rules of engagement with the but how you estimate jo, patients are reported upon after all. the chairman of the joint chiefs called as a right just regular now general mackenzie says they already worried about civilian casualties. and this was noted dubiously by the press as a strike against isis k. a and people were saying, oh, well, well done america, you really know what you're, what you're doing. because this is a feature of the drone war since president obama escalated them during his presidency. in 2009 from 2009 on which particularly this sort of strike a signature strike, which is where the u. s. military looks at patterns of behavior and then bombs without necessarily dying who the bombing and the rule under obama. i believe it's still the cases it is assumed that they are competent unless it's proven otherwise . it was very interesting that if the general mckenzie talk about how difficult it is to prove a negative, that's precisely what the pentagon relies upon its drone strikes. because how often you get a whole new york times team in a place where the u. s. has just bombed somewhere,

as part of its as part of its warren time, there was that question. would you have had this inquiry of the new york times about a week ago? hadn't come out with it's on the ground reporting, interviewing. people found out that this was an aide worker, and many children had been killed. he didn't really, he didn't really answer that, but it does all close. also raise the question of how many others, how many other drain strikes, what we've been told, isis k with some other adversary. the americans has been killed. how many times has it not been the case because we've always had suspicions. we reported on that widely on, on al jazeera, but this is this question to over the horizon capability them, which is not the future of bibles war in afghanistan. it is again troubling, but always was struggling because of the same reasons that we've had since obama began began escalating drones. the drone was, and trump actually escalated that even further. either way, as we know from the new yorker, either way african civilians were being killed on names, not being recorded, whether the, whether the u. s, as in, was in the us or not. so many,

many troublesome aspects of this. at least we did have a new york times team on the ground to follow up. it's not really clear whether that would have been the case otherwise. thank you very much. thank you very much. shabby or thompson in washington? also, we have now algeria national bar, i joined us from the afghan capital couple, he's on the phone. and so the us now admitting that innocent civilians including children, were killed in that don't dr. strike, which took place in a very densely populated residential area in campbell at a time when people at last still processing the upheaval of the past few weeks. tell us what the mood is like there. and what the reaction to this news is likely to be likely to get more text moves from the time about questioning. exactly what happened that particular day when the joan attack happens and the american said that they were targeting is lot mix take

up city a to with the with i said, which is the 5 k operative the tell me about came out and says.