Twenty-one organizations have sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin calling for the Pentagon to conduct a transparent investigation into a May 3 drone strike that killed a civilian in northwest Syria’s Idlib province.
When the strike was first launched, US Central Command claimed it killed a “senior al-Qaeda leader,” but there were immediate indications that a civilian was hit. Pentagon officials later told CNN that CENTCOM did not know who they killed when they made the claim.
The victim of the drone strike turned out to be 56-year-old Lotfi Hassan Misto, a father of 10 who was killed while herding his sheep in the Idlib countryside. Relatives and neighbors said he had no affiliation with al-Qaeda or any militant group, and terrorism experts told The Washington Post there was no evidence that he did.
The letter’s signatories include Amnesty International and the monitoring group Airwars, and they call on the Pentagon to conduct a “robust” investigation into the strike. The Pentagon has announced a probe into the incident, but previous investigations into strikes that killed civilians have claimed no wrongdoing and did not result in any accountability.
The groups want the investigation to be transparent and released to the public. “We ask that you publicly release the full investigation and its findings. Public institutions can only be held to account when external parties, including the general public, can review and independently assess their actions,” the letter reads.
The letter also calls for the US to “make amends” for the strike. “If the Department finds a civilian was killed, we ask that you provide acknowledgment and amends in consultation with his family or representatives, as envisioned by your new plan to improve civilian harm response,” the letter says.
And likely the U.S.response will be for the 21 organizations to kindly go to hell before U.S. drones them straight to hell.
Compounded by the blatant illegality of US military operating in Syria.
As if the US cares – how many civilians did they drone murder in Afghanistan
All “righteous” strikes. G-d Bless America!
Conduct an investigation? Make amends? WAPO says 387,000 civilians died in our war on terror, while the rest of the 4.5 million who died were “bad” terrorists. When should the families of the innocent 387,000 civilians expect letters and “amends?” …While you work on it, make sure you tell them their deaths “were worth it.” That’s important for me to maintain my moral superiority. (Sarcasm alert)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/
“”WAPO says 387,000 civilians died in our war on terror, while the rest of the 4.5 million who died were “bad” terrorists.””
that means that every family of 12 terrorists had about 1 innocent person – probably to do the chores
Yeah… That’s the idea… You know… They were the ones getting married from each family of “bad” terrorists at the wedding. …SPY! You’re impossible. …You already knew that, but wanted to spoil my sarcastic remark?
no it literally took me 10 minutes to figure out that 387,000 is about 1/12 of 4.5 million.
and dumb at math as i am, i still have to take away my wife’s checkbook
Dude. Taking away my wife’s checkbook was worse to me than what happened to Putin when he stopped paying Prigozhin.
You use a CHECKBOOK!!?? Archaic. Just let the plastic do the adding and subtracting.
we do have plastics – ironically they are both in my wife’s name but she only gets to use hers if there is an emergency.
They were “righteous” deaths. At least that is what Joe called one, the strike that killed a father and 7 children. “Rule of law”. “Righteous”. MURDER!
After entering Syria in 2014, the US forces, under the pretext of fighting terrorist groups, have established military bases in oil-rich areas in northeastern and eastern Syria, and started the systematic stealing of Syrian oil.
The Syrian Oil Ministry said in August that the US forces were stealing 80 per cent of Syria’s oil production, causing direct and indirect losses of about $107.1 billion to Syria’s oil and gas sectors.
https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/us-forces-steal-92-tankers-of-oil-wheat-from-syria-to-iraq/94929199
Of course. Wars are fought over resources, in this case oil.
The War Machine does not give a damn about any of us .. not one iota. These are people who kill for profit.. can’t get much more evil than that.
Correct. If they did, there would be no war nonsense. Anywhere. Money spent would be spent on our needs.
“The letter’s signatories include Amnesty International and the monitoring group Airwars, and they call on the Pentagon to conduct a “robust” investigation into the strike.”
Similar to Israel investigating themselves when they kill an American journalist. Can’t wait for the results.
We will give less to his family than is given by others to those who have a family member who has died (blew themselves up) in a martyrdom operation.
We will send the family of 10 about $5K and call it even. On to the next “righteous” drone strike………………….and another dead father. Herding sheep. Or passing out water bottles.
The Pentagon is run by Aholes. Don’t hold your breath.
Drone strikes kill more civilians than intended targets (though sometimes they’re the same!). So what’s the big deal about this one? One civilian? The U.S. has killed many thousands of civilians with drones. What about all of them?
The Pentagon should make amends for the drone strike but of course won’t. The Pentagon has been killing innocent people in addition to guilty people in drone strikes. It is lucky no foreign nation is fighting wars on its soil nor sending drones to kill people on its soil.