US Military Officials Retract Assertion Of Drone Strike Eliminating Al-Qaeda Leader
The Pentagon is reportedly beginning to question whether or not a top al-Qaeda leader was ki!!ed by a drone strike earlier this month in Syria.
The strike on May 3 could have instead taken the life of Lotfi Hassan Misto, a 56-year-old father of ten who was tending to his sheep in a peaceful community in the northwest region of Syria when the Hellfire missile struck.
The United States Central Command (Centcom), which coordinated the operation, asserted shortly after the att@ck that the missile strike had targeted a senior al-Qaeda figure.
However, as reported by The Washington Post, senior officials inside the Defense Department are now questioning whether or not the intended target was eliminated.
A senior Defense Department official made the statement to the publication. “We are no longer confident that we killed a senior AQ official,” the official said.
The Washington Post shared a tweet on its Twitter handle in which U.S. military officials are walking back claims that a recent strike in Syria. You can take a look at it below.
U.S. military officials are walking back claims that a recent strike in Syria killed an influential al-Qaeda figure, following assertions by the dead man’s family that he had no ties to terrorists but was a father of 10 tending to his sheep when he was slain by an American… pic.twitter.com/9CPG060OHU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 19, 2023
Another official stated they were still confident that a member of al-Qaeda, a terr0rist organization designated by the United States, was among those ki!!ed in the strike.
According to The Post, which conducted interviews with members of the victim’s family, the strike was located at coordinates near Misto’s home and poultry farm. Centcom is reportedly investigating the event.
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Since starting overall global counterterr0rism operations after September 11, 2001, the United States has regularly been scrutinized for executing fatal att@cks that have ki!!ed civilians while searching for alleged military targets. These strikes were carried out to eliminate terr0rist threats.
More recently, a failed strike in Afghanistan in August 2021 harmed 10 civilians rather than a significant ISIS-K target. The strike occurred in Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense reported “execution errors” in the build-up to the strike but found no violations of the laws of war. It did not penalize anyone for the botched operation.
A new policy requiring the commander-in-chief’s approval for any suspect added to a terr0r list who can subsequently be targeted by military action was signed into law in October after Democrats demanded that President Biden restructure counterterr0rism and drone att@ck operations. This push led to the new policy.