Pentagon orders new inquiry into deadly US airstrike in ’19 in Syria
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday ordered a new high-level investigation into a U.S. airstrike in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of women and children, according to a senior Defense Department official.
The investigation by Gen. Michael Garrett, the fourstar head of the Army’s Forces Command, will examine the strike, which was carried out by a shadowy, classified Special Operations unit called Task Force 9, as well as the handling of the task force’s investigation by higher military headquarters and the Defense Department’s inspector general, the official said.
Garrett will have 90 days to review inquiries already conducted into the episode, and further investigate reports of civilian casualties, whether any violations of laws of war occurred, record-keeping errors, whether any recommendations from earlier reviews were carried out, and whether anyone should be held accountable, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been announced.
Austin’s decision comes in the wake of a New York Times investigation this month that described allegations that top officers and civilian officials had sought to conceal the casualties.
The Syria airstrike took place near the town of Baghuz on March 18, 2019, as part of the final battle against Islamic State fighters in a shard of a once-sprawling religious state across Iraq and Syria. It was among the largest episodes of civilian casualties in the yearslong war against the group, but the U.S. military had never publicly acknowledged it.
The classified task force investigated the strike and acknowledged that four civilians were killed, but it also concluded that there had been no wrongdoing by the Special Operations unit. In October 2019, the task force sent its findings to the Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
But Central Command officials did not follow up and failed to remind a subordinate military headquarters in Baghdad to do so, in what Capt. Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesperson, described as “an administrative oversight.”
Vaccine mandate: The Supreme Court has turned away an emergency appeal from employees at the largest hospital system in Massachusetts who object to the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.
Justice Stephen Breyer did not comment Monday in rejecting the request from employees at Mass General Brigham for a religious exemption to the system’s vaccine requirement. Lawyers for the employees said in court papers that six have been fired, one has resigned, and another was vaccinated.
Mass General Brigham, which with 80,000 workers is the state’s largest private employer, told employees they would be terminated if they did not receive their first shot by Nov. 5.
The employees who sued contend the requirement violates federal workplace discrimination laws.
Word of the year: With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has declared an omnipresent truth as its 2021 word of the year: vaccine.
“This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-atlarge, told The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement.
The selection follows “vax” as word of the year from the Oxford English Dictionary. And it comes after Merriam-Webster chose “pandemic” as tops in lookups last year on its online site.
At Merriam-Webster, lookups for “vaccine” increased 601% over 2020.
Honduras election: Opposition candidate Xiomara Castro inched closer to an astounding presidential victory Monday, promising a new era of democratic inclusion in Honduras where despair has driven hundreds of thousands to the U.S. border seeking refuge in recent years.
Castro, 62, held a 20 percentage-point lead over the candidate of the incumbent National Party with 51% of the ballot boxes counted. The results of the Sunday vote appeared to show a stunning repudiation of the National Party’s 12-year rule, which was shaped by pervasive corruption, dismantling of democratic institutions and accusations of links with drug cartels.
Thousands of Hondurans poured into the streets to celebrate what they believed was Castro’s insurmountable lead, shooting fireworks and singing “JOH, JOH, and away you go,” a reference to the deeply unpopular outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández.
The National Party refused to concede, asserting that it will win once all the votes are counted. But the president of Honduras’ business chamber congratulated Castro on her apparent victory.
Military study: After months of study, the Pentagon has decided no immediate major changes are needed in the global positioning of
U.S. forces, although it will further analyze force needs in the Middle East and make refinements in Asia and the Pacific, officials said Monday.
The outcome of the study, which began in March at Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s direction, reflects a complex security picture facing the Biden administration, which fully withdrew from Afghanistan in August but is increasingly concerned about countering China in the Asia-Pacific region and Russia in Europe. Iran presents a further challenge, including in Iraq and Syria.
The Austin review is the first of several broad assessments by the administration of its defense priorities and policies. They include a reassessment of nuclear forces — their size and makeup, as well as the policies associated with their potential use — that is due to be finished early next year.
Scottish independence:
Scotland’s leader said Monday that she will renew her push for independence from the United Kingdom next year, with the aim of holding a referendum on secession in 2023.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the independence campaign, stalled by the pandemic, “will resume in earnest” in spring 2022, “COVID permitting.”
Scottish voters opted to remain part of the United Kingdom by a margin of 55% to 45% in a 2014 referendum that was billed as a once-in-a-generation choice. But the SNP, which heads the Scottish government, argues that Britain’s departure from the European Union last year has changed the political and economic landscape.
Sturgeon faces a big obstacle to a new independence vote: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose government must agree to a binding referendum. Johnson is adamant he won’t consent.