The US relied in part on overhead surveillance imagery to target the suspected ISIS-K fighters, according to two US officials.
The imagery showed the suspected ISIS-K fighters loading explosives into the trunk of a car, the officials told CNN. Intelligence assets tracked the vehicle for an extended period of time and saw it stop at multiple suspected ISIS-K locations, according to a third official, and by the time of the strike, the Pentagon had amassed enough other evidence to believe that the vehicle was headed for Hamid Karzai International Airport to launch an attack.
But the cost was high. The strike took place in a tight residential alleyway and appears to have killed at least 10 civilians — including children, according to their families, who spoke to CNN in the aftermath and have disputed that any of the slain were affiliated with ISIS-K. The Pentagon has defended the strike…
