Intel: Pentagon chief briefed on 2019 Syria airstrike
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the briefing after reading an investigation into the strike by The New York Times.
The head of US forces in the Middle East, Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, briefed US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday about a 2019 airstrike in Syria that the US military admitted for the first time this week had killed civilians.
Austin requested the briefing after The New York Times revealed Saturday that military officials had serious concerns that dozens of civilians had been killed in the bombing during the final battle against the Islamic State (IS), Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby revealed.
Why It Matters: The strike at Baghuz may be one of the highest single incidents of civilian casualties caused by the United States during the five-year war against IS.
The distinction between civilians and combatants blurred during the battle as the jihadist proto-state crammed in to just a few square kilometers in open fields along the north bank of the Euphrates River. US airstrikes pounded away as a hail of machine gun and mortar fire eventually forced IS’ remaining adherents to surrender.
