A report reveals that the United States hid an airstrike that killed 70 civilians in Syria in 2019

During a US-led operation against ISIS in the city of Baghouz, Syria, to find military targets, the US military carried out an attack in an area where there were women and children, killing 70 civilians on March 18, 2019. However, 50 were reported Only one death, the New York Times claimed.

New York media noted that despite the fact that an unmanned US military aircraft flew over the area and only found civilians, a few minutes later The Times claimed that a plane crossed the drone’s high-resolution field of view and dropped a 500-pound bomb on People, causing a severe explosion.

It was not the only bomb dropped in the area that day, in Baghouz. After the first strike, some survivors fled in search of a hideout, but moments later a jet dropped a 2,000-pound bomb, and then another, killing most of the people who survived the first blast.

Staff of the US Army’s Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar looked at images of the drone with astonishment and disbelief, according to an officer found at the scene.

Confused as to what happened, an analyst in a chat system used by those who were monitoring the drone wrote: “Who brought that down? Someone else replied, ‘We just left 50 women and children.’” But later reports put the death toll at least 70 civilians, the Times noted.

New York media noted that “the attack in Baghouz, Syria, was one of the largest incidents of civilian casualties in the war against the Islamic State, but it was not publicly acknowledged by the US military.”

Records indicate that an officer said an investigation was necessary for the attack in Baghouz, where it could be considered a war crime; However, the military took measures to conceal the unfortunate attack, says the outlet.

“The death toll has been reduced. Reports have been delayed, sanitized and classified. US-led coalition forces destroyed the site of the blast and senior commanders were not informed.”

Meanwhile, Jane Tate, a whistleblower who worked on the Defense Department’s Independent Inspector General case, told The Times that those involved were determined to bury that fact, because no one wanted to share responsibility for it. attacks..

“It makes you lose faith in the system when people are trying to do the right thing, but no one in leadership positions wants to hear it,” Tate added.

The media said that after the attack on Baghouz, an intelligence officer from the operations center summoned the Air Force lawyer who is responsible for determining the legality of the attack. The attorney ordered that all videos as well as other evidence be preserved.

Despite the evidence, the investigation has not been deepened
He later reported what happened to his superiors, but no further investigation was conducted or independently, according to documents obtained by The Times.

With the evidence collected by the newspaper and sent to the US Central Command, which oversaw the war in Syria, it responded with a statement admitting the attacks, but asserting that they were justified.

The bombs killed 16 fighters and four civilians. The Central Command said in a statement to the media that it was not clear that the 60 dead were civilians, in part because the women and children of the Islamic State sometimes took up arms.

This information was collected by The New York Times after accessing classified documents and descriptions of classified reports and interviews with people involved in the attack, as well as with officials with security clearances who offered to provide classified information on the condition of anonymity. .