US drones ‘massacre’ dozens in mosque
A US DRONE aircraft fired missiles and dropped a 226kg bomb outside Aleppo on Friday in an attack that the Pentagon said killed scores of al-Qaeda militants, but that local residents described as an assault on a mosque crowded with civilians.
US officials said the strikes in the town of Jinah had killed “dozens” of militants.
But local activists and a monitoring group reported that at least 46 people died and more were trapped under rubble, when the attack struck a mosque during a religious gathering.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring network, described the scene in Jinah as a “massacre”, saying the dead were mostly civilians. The disputed strike occurred as the Trump administration makes plans to expand its troop presence in Syria, part of a push to intensify counter-terrorism operations across the Middle East.
If confirmed, Thursday’s killing of civilians would mark one of the worst instances of errant deaths alleged against the US since it began its air campaign in Iraq and Syria more than two years ago.
While the ongoing US air campaign in Syria has mostly targeted the Islamic State, the US military has also launched a parallel effort against what is described as a growing al-Qaeda presence there.
Residents in Jinah described powerful blasts that shook the ground and sent civilians fleeing, many of them dazed and bleeding. Three residents said that at the time of the attack at least 200 people were gathered in the mosque and a nearby building for religious instruction.
Aerial imagery appeared to confirm that much of the northern section of Jinah’s mosque was destroyed. “Whether US drones directly targeted the mosque at Al-Jinah, as some allege, or it was instead caught up in a US drone strike in the immediate vicinity, a significant number of civilians died at the scene, according to the White Helmets, local media and casualty monitors,” said Chris Woods, director of Airwars, a Britain-based group that tracks allegations of civilian casualties.
Now US officials are reviewing whether to roll back rules put in place by president Barack Obama, that subject counter-terrorism strikes to close scrutiny by the White House and require the US to have “near certainty” that strikes outside war zones will not kill civilians.
The change would hand greater decision-making power back to the Defence Department and CIA, but activists say it would also alienate people in countries with counter-terrorism problems and create additional national security threats.
Activists and journalists in north-eastern Syria said the group has become more cautious about large gatherings.
Members often choose to travel by motorcycle instead of by car and without circulating movement plans ahead of time. – Washington Post