US army officers strolling again claims drone strike killed al-Qaeda chief: report

The Pentagon now doubts whether or not a drone strike in Syria earlier this month killed a prime al-Qaeda chief, based on The Washington Put up.

The Could 3 strike might have as a substitute killed Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, a father of 10 who was tending to his sheep in a quiet city in northwest Syria when the Hellfire missile struck, The Put up reported.

U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which oversaw the operation, had claimed the missile strike had focused a senior al-Qaeda determine shortly after the assault was carried out.

However senior Protection officers are actually hesitating on whether or not the right goal was killed, based on The Put up.

“We’re not assured we killed a senior AQ official,” a senior Protection official advised the newspaper.

One other official stated they had been nonetheless optimistic the strike killed a member of al-Qaeda, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Centcom is investigating the incident, based on The Put up, which interviewed members of the sufferer’s household and recognized the strike as occurring at coordinates close to Misto’s residence and rooster farm.

Since launching sweeping international counterterrorism operations after 9/11, the U.S. has continuously come below scrutiny for conducting deadly strikes which have killed civilians when in search of suspected army targets.

Extra just lately, a failed August 2021 strike in Afghanistan killed 10 civilians as a substitute of a key ISIS-Ok goal.

The Protection Division reported “execution errors” within the lead-up to the strike however discovered no violations of battle and didn’t punish anybody for the botched assault.

Final 12 months, Democrats referred to as for President Biden to overtake counterterrorism and drone strike operations, resulting in a brand new coverage signed in October requiring the commander-in-chief to approve any suspect added to a terror record who can then be focused by army motion.