Pentagon Chief Orders Briefing on 2019 Syria Airstrike That Killed Dozens

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has ordered the military’s apical commandant successful the Middle East to little him connected details of a U.S. airstrike successful Syria successful 2019 that killed dozens of women and children, the Pentagon said connected Monday.

The Pentagon’s apical spokesman, John F. Kirby, said Mr. Austin, who became caput this twelvemonth aft the Biden medication took office, requested the briefing aft speechmaking an investigative study published implicit the play by The New York Times detailing the onslaught and allegations that apical officers and civilian officials sought to conceal the casualties.

Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the caput of the military’s Central Command, which oversaw the aerial warfare successful Syria, volition “brief him much specifically connected that peculiar airstrike” and its handling, Mr. Kirby told reporters.

Mr. Kirby would not remark connected details of the strike, a bombing astatine Baghuz, Syria, connected March 18, 2019, that was portion of the last conflict against Islamic State fighters successful the past shard of a once-sprawling spiritual authorities crossed Iraq and Syria. It was 1 of the largest civilian casualty incidents of the yearslong warfare against ISIS, but had ne'er been publically acknowledged by the U.S. military.

“I’m not going to relitigate a onslaught that happened backmost successful March of 2019,” Mr. Kirby said.

Instead, helium sought to support the American military’s standards and procedures for waging a modern, precision-strike warfare that besides emphasizes mitigation of the hazard to civilians.

“No subject successful the satellite works arsenic hard arsenic we bash to debar civilian casualties,” Mr. Kirby said. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t ever get it right. We don’t. We enactment hard to debar civilian harm. We besides privation to instrumentality a look astatine ourselves.”

The Times probe showed that the decease toll from the onslaught was astir instantly evident to subject officials. A ineligible serviceman flagged the bombing arsenic a imaginable warfare transgression that required an investigation. But astatine astir each step, the subject made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike. The decease toll was downplayed. Reports were delayed, sanitized and classified. U.S.-led conjugation forces bulldozed the blast site. And apical leaders were not notified.

An archetypal conflict harm appraisal rapidly recovered that the fig of dormant was astir 70.

The Times probe recovered that the bombing by Air Force F-15 onslaught jets had been called successful by a classified American Special Operations unit, Task Force 9, which was successful complaint of crushed operations successful Syria. The task unit operated successful specified secrecy that astatine times it did not pass adjacent its ain subject partners of its actions. In the lawsuit of the Baghuz bombing, the aerial bid halfway astatine Al Udeid Air Base successful Qatar had nary thought the onslaught was coming, an serviceman who served astatine the bid halfway said.

The Defense Department’s autarkic inspector wide began an inquiry, but the study containing its findings was stalled and stripped of immoderate notation of the strike.

Mr. Kirby said, though, that 2 studies examining civilian casualties commissioned by the Pentagon were wrapping up, and would soon beryllium made public.

One study, by RAND Corporation and started during the Trump medication by the Pentagon’s Special Operations argumentation office, specifically looks astatine civilian casualties caused by subject operations successful Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State’s erstwhile de facto capital. Mr. Kirby said helium did not cognize if the March 2019 airstrike would beryllium included successful that review.

Key Findings From the Baghuz Airstrike Investigation

A 2nd study, besides by RAND and required by Congress arsenic portion of a caller subject argumentation bill, looks astatine the broader contented of civilian casualties successful American subject operations worldwide, Mr. Kirby said.

“We’re consenting to support looking astatine ourselves with respect to civilian harm, and to bash everything we tin to effort to mitigate that,” helium said.

Last week, aft The Times sent its findings to U.S. Central Command, the bid acknowledged the onslaught for the archetypal time, saying that 80 radical were killed but that the airstrike was justified. It said 3 bombs — 1 500-pound and 2 2,000-pound munitions — killed 16 fighters and 4 civilians. As for the different 60 radical killed, the connection said it was not wide that they were civilians, successful portion due to the fact that women and children successful the Islamic State sometimes took up arms.

Human rights advocates expressed outrage connected Monday astatine the onslaught and the military’s handling of it, and demanded that Congress unfastened an autarkic investigation.

“Clearly, the U.S. subject isn’t going to hole it,” said Sarah Holewinski, the Washington manager of Human Rights Watch and a erstwhile elder advisor connected quality rights to the military’s Joint Staff. “The Pentagon has ne'er prioritized civilian harm. Ever. I’m bushed of that talking point.”