New York: In the last days of the battle against the Islamic group in Syria, when members of the once-fierce Caliphate were cornered in the landfield next to a city called Baghuz, a US military unmanned aircraft circled by a high overhead, hunting for the military target.
But it only saw a large crowd of women and children curled up with the banks of the river.
Without a warning, the US F-15E jet attacks shot at the drone field about the vision and dropped a bomb of almost 227-kg of crowd, swallowing in the explosion.
Like smoke cleaned, some people deliberately went looking for a cover.
Then the jet tracks them down one bomb 907-LG, then another, kills most of the victims.
It was March 18, 2019.
On a busy US military combined air operation center at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar, personnel in uniformed watching the live footage drone looking at unbelieving stunned, according to one of the officers there.
“Who dropped it?” An analyst is confused typed on the chat system safely used by them monitoring unmanned aircraft, two people who review chat logs remember.
Others answer, “We were only dropped in 50 women and children.” An initial battle damage assessment quickly found that the number of victims was actually about 70.
Baghuz strike was one of the largest civil victims incidents of the war against IS, but had never been openly recognized by the US military.
Details showed that the dead were immediately clear for military officials.
A legal officer marked a strike as a war crime may require an investigation.
But in almost every step, the military made a hidden step of disaster attacks.
The death toll underestimate.
Pending reports, cleaned and classified.
US leadership coalition forces in the location of the explosion.
And the top leader was not told.
The Independent Defense Department Inspector General began investigation, but a report containing the findings was stopped and stripped of the mention of the strike.
“Leadership looks so set at this bury.
There is nothing to do with it, “Gene Tate said, an evaluator who worked on the case for the Office of Inspector General.
Tate said he criticized the lack of action and was finally forced out of his work.
An investigation by NYT found that the bombing was called by the Secret Unit of the US Special Operations, Task Force 9, who was responsible for land operations in Syria.
The task force was operated in secret so that at that time it did not tell even his own military partner.
In the case of Baghuz bombings, the US commanded the Air Force in Qatar did not know the strike came, an officer in charge of the word command center.
The air force lawyer was tasked with determining the legality of the attack reported them to his superiors, saying it was a possible war crime and the necessary regulations were thorough, independent investigations.
But overall, independent investigations never happened.
This past week, after NYT sent his findings of US Central Command, which oversees the air war in Syria, the order admitted the attack for the first time, said 80 people were killed but air strikes were justified.
It was said that the bomb killed 16 fighters and four civilians.
As for 60 other people were killed, the statement was unclear that they were civilians, partly because women and children in IS sometimes raised weapons.
The only assessment was made immediately after the strike was carried out by the same land unit that ordered the strike.
This is determined that the bombing is legitimate because it is killed only a small number of civilians while targeting IS fighters, command words.
Therefore, there is no notification of formal war crimes, criminal investigations or disciplinary actions needed, he said, adding that other deliberate deaths.