Pentagon orders probe into US airstrike that killed dozens of civilians in Syria

Middle East, News, US November 29, 2021 , by IRIA No Comments

The investigation comes after a news report that the US military concealed the catastrophic strike

The Pentagon has announced to investigate the March 2019 U.S. airstrikes in Syria which killed more than 60 civilians dead.

The Pentagon says the airstrikes were part of U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces to defeat ISIS in Syria.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin has tasked Army Gen. Michael X. Garrett, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, to conduct the investigations and to submit his findings within 90 days to the secretary, Pentagon spokesperson John F. Kirby said.

The inquiry will include an assessment of the civilian casualties that resulted from the incident; compliance with the law of war; record-keeping and reporting procedures; whether mitigation measures identified in previous investigations into the incident were in fact implemented effectively; whether accountability measures would be appropriate; and finally whether authorities, procedures or processes should be altered.

The investigation comes after The New York Times reported on efforts to conceal the details of the airstrikes in Al-Baghuz Fawqani that occurred on March 18, 2019. The initial assessment of the strike estimated the death toll at 70.

On March 18, 2019, an American F-15E attack jet dropped a 500-pound bomb on the crowd and then dropped a 2,000-pound bomb, then another, killing most of the survivors. “We jet dropped on 50 women and children” wrote an analyst at the US military’s Combined Air Operations Center at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar as the officers after the airstrike.

“The Baghuz strike was one of the largest civilian casualty incidents of the war against ISIS, but it has never been publicly acknowledged by the US military,” according to NYT.

“A legal officer flagged the strike as a possible war crime that required an investigation. But at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike. The death toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. US-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site. And top leaders were not notified,” the newspaper said.