A ‘Righteous Strike’

When he visited the site of an American drone strike in Kabul, Matthieu Aikins, a Times journalist, knew something wasn’t adding up. He uncovered a story that was quite different from the one offered up by the United States military. 

We follow The Times’s investigation and how it forced the military to acknowledge that the drone attack was a mistake.

Guest: Matthieu Aikins, a writer based in Afghanistan for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• U.S. officials said a Reaper drone followed a car for hours and then fired based on evidence it was carrying explosives for ISIS. But in-depth video analysis and interviews at the site cast doubt on that account.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.