The suicide bombing killed as many as 170 civilians and 13 U.S. troops in the final days of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.
A single Islamic State suicide bomber carried out the attack at Kabul’s international airport in August that killed 13 U.S. troops and as many as 170 civilians, and was not joined by accomplices firing into the crowd, according to a Pentagon report released on Friday.
The findings by a team of Army-led investigators contradict initial reports by senior U.S. commanders that militants fired into the crowd of people at the airport seeking to flee the Afghan capital and caused some of the casualties.
The report also absolved Marines of firing lethal shots into the crowd at the Abbey Gate entrance to the airport as some officials had suspected because of the large amount of ammunition the Marines fired after the attack, which took place on Aug. 26.
“The investigation found no definitive proof that anyone was ever hit or killed by gunfire, either U.S. or Afghan,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the Central Command, told reporters in a video conference from his headquarters in Tampa, Fla.