Syria The Wrong and Hidden Raid: “This is how the United States in 2019 killed 80 civilians, women, and children.” New York Times investigation

“We threw bombs on 50 women and children.” This was stated by a military analyst at the American base many In Qatar, il March 18, 2019. A few minutes ago, the United States carried out a raid BaghouzThe last stronghold of ISIS in Syria. Two bombs, one after the other. The bug remained hidden until November 13, 2021. civilians stayed killingIn fact, there were more: 80. This was revealed by an investigation The New York TimesWhich retraces the previous minutes and panicked the next, when the troops realized they had made a mistake. The raid was carried out on the recommendation of Task Force 9It is a special operations unit that includes elite commandos delta force.

The investigation by the American newspaper also gives space to a legal employee who strongly described the incident as possible war crime Which required an investigation, but the newspaper says: “Almost every step of the armed forces tried to To hide disastrous raid. The death toll was zoom out. Information about it is kept confidential. Senior leaders were not warned. The Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense opened an investigation, but the results were delayed and any mention of the raid was removed.”

In the face of the investigation conclusions sent by the same newspaper, a Central Command An American admitted to the attack for the first time. He explained that this was justified and that the two bombs were killed 16 ISIS fighters and 4 civilians. It was not clear whether the other 60 victims were civilians or not, as women and children in the caliphate were often armed. “We hate the loss of innocent lives and we are taking all possible measures to prevent it,” the captain said. Bill UrbanCentral Command spokesman.

The New York Times investigation also reveals the concerns of many about Task Force 9, which has already given the impression of circumventing guarantees to reduce innocent deaths, and doing so in a systematic way. To care, in addition to human rights associations as well Some CIA agents in Syria.