Scores dead in US drone bomb attack
It was a massacre – rights group
A US drone aircraft fired missiles and dropped a 230kg 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 at a meeting of the terrorist group. 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. Photos from the area showed rescue workers pulling mangled bodies from a mound of rubble.
“Bodies filled the space,” said Mohamed al-Shaghal, a journalist who arrived at the scene shortly after the attack. He said the mosque was destroyed.
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, and weeks after a US operation against al-Qaeda left civilians dead in Yemen.
It also takes place as the White House considers lifting rules enacted by the Obama administration that sought to avoid civilian deaths, another sign of President Donald Trump’s more aggressive approach to dealing with terrorist threats.
If confirmed, Friday’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.
Pentagon officials said they had no credible allegations of civilian casualties in the strike but would begin an investigation if any surfaced.
While the 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.
US aircraft have struck dozens of locations in north-west Syria, where an al-Qaeda-linked alliance of rebel groups known as Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, is now the ascendant force. The area is also home to an assortment of other rebel groups active in Syria’s civil war.
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, although it was unclear whether the strike was a direct one.
Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters the American munitions struck a “partially constructed community hall” that was being used by al-Qaeda fighters. He said there was a mosque nearby but it had not been hit.
A US official insisted the decision to conduct the strike was based on verified intelligence. He said that militants had gathered to discuss future operations.
Friday’s attack involved two Reaper drones, which fired more than four Hellfire missiles and dropped at least one 230kg guided bomb in a follow-up strike, the US official said.
Mohamed Shakourdi, a local activist, said the final explosion came as people streamed out of the mosque.
“They were running as a fourth rocket hit,” he said.
The mosque was believed to have housed several displaced families from the nearby city of Aleppo, much of which was levelled by Syrian government forces during an extended campaign to recapture the eastern half of the city from opposition forces.