A U.S. drone strike in Syria last year killed a 56-year-old shepherd after confusing him for a terrorist leader, an internal investigation concluded, underscoring the Pentagon’s persistent struggle to avoid unintentional casualties despite the Biden administration’s pledge to curb such incidents.
The new assessment by U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military activity throughout the Middle East, affirms a Washington Post investigation published a year ago that cast doubt on officials’ initial public claim to have slain a senior al-Qaeda figure. A summary of the investigation’s findings was provided to The Post ahead of an anticipated release later Thursday.
A year later quietly admitted in a way nobody will really notice and the next time you try to tell people that the US kills innocent people they’ll just pretend this never happened or it’s just a rare event rather than the norm.