The Pentagon acknowledged Thursday that it mistakenly killed a civilian in a 2023 airstrike in northwest Syria after U.S. service members misidentified the man as a senior al Qaeda leader.
An internal investigation found American forces “misidentified the intended Al Qaeda target and that a civilian, Mr. Lufti Hasan Masto (Masto), was struck and killed instead,” according to a U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) statement on the findings.
The U.S. military initially claimed that it had killed a senior al Qaeda leader in the May 3, 2023, strike in northwest Syria. Instead it targeted Masto, a 56-year-old shepherd.
U.S. officials quickly walked back the claims a senior al Qaeda figure had been killed and wrapped its probe in November, but did not publicly admit until Thursday that it had mistaken Masto as an al Qaeda official.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
How much trust do you place in your country's military decisions after learning about incidents like this, and why?
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Có nên bồi thường cho gia đình của những người dân bị giết oan trong các hoạt động quân sự, và nếu có, bạn nghĩ rằng điều này nên được xử lý như thế nào?
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
Bạn có tin rằng chính phủ nên công khai xin lỗi về những sai lầm trong các hành động quân sự, và tại sao?
