The world’s most powerful military force mistook a woman and a child for a man in rural Somalia, killed them, and decided their deaths were no one’s fault.

On the morning of 1 April 2018, Luul Dahir Mohamed was on her way to visit her brother in the Galguduud region of central Somalia. She wanted to meet his children for the first time. Her brother, Qasim Dahir Mohamed, was supposed to pick her up. But they could not reach each other on the phone, and so Luul caught a ride in a maroon Toyota Hilux pickup instead.

Qasim actually passed the Hilux on the road, and saw Luul sitting in the passenger seat. Her four-year-old daughter, Mariam, was on her lap. He waved and hooted, but the vehicle kept going.

A little while later, Qasim heard an explosion, followed by another and, after a pause, one more blast.

The news spread fast: A drone strike had hit a pickup. Qasim and his brother rushed towards the site. When they found the Hilux, the roof was torn open, the bed was smashed, and its cargo of mattresses and pillows were aflame. Four men were dead inside and another young man lay lifeless in the dirt nearby. About 200 feet away, Qasim found what remained of Luul. Her left leg was mangled, and the top of her head was missing. She died clutching four-year old daughter, Mariam, whose body was peppered with tiny shards of shrapnel.

Qasim tore off a swath of his sarong and began gathering up small pieces of his sister. Stunned and grieving, he spent hours searching for fragments of her body along the dirt road, working by the glare of his car’s headlights as the sky darkened.

Finally, he bundled Luul’s and Mariam’s remains and brought them home. Luul’s body was so mutilated that it was impossible to properly wash, as is required in Islam. Instead, he wrapped her with care in a shroud. Luul and Mariam were buried together in a village cemetery. The next day, locals living near the strike site called Qasim. They had found the top of Luul’s skull complete with hair and a delicate gold teardrop dangling from one ear. She was only 22-years old at the time of her death.

read more: https://continent.substack.com/p/a-us-drone-killed-a-somali-mother