Leaks and secret documents How did Washington ignore the massacre of its planes against civilians in Syria?

Following the controversy sparked by media reports in international public opinion about the US air strikes in Syria in 2019, which killed dozens of civilians, a special report by the Defense Ministry reveals that the US leaders ignored the complaints that they alerted at the time to these violations.

The New York Times recently spoke, in a hot report, about the high number of Syrian civilians who fell victim to the US air strikes on March 18, 2019, in the town of Baghouz in eastern Syria, which was targeting elements of the terrorist organization ISIS.

According to the newspaper, the air strikes had resulted in the killing of at least 70 civilians, most of whom were women and children. While international public opinion and human rights organizations condemned this humanitarian crime committed by the American forces on the soil of Syria, US officials defended this raid as “justified,” and it was stated in an official statement carried by the newspaper that: “The attack resulted in the killing of 16 ISIS militants and 4 civilians.” As for the other 60 people, it was not ascertained whether they were civilians or not because women and children sometimes carried weapons inside the organization’s areas.”

While the facts of the American raid began to surface little by little, the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense decided to open an investigation into the matter to reveal the grave violations that the US forces deliberately covered up and concealed.

Ignoring civilian complaints

The American newspaper Bloomberg revealed, in a detailed report , based on private leaks, that the US Department of Defense had received, during the months of August and September 2019, a set of complaints about the killing of dozens of Syrian civilians, during the US raid to eliminate ISIS terrorist elements. During March 2019, in the town of Baghouz, the last stronghold of the organization.

Although the Ministry of Defense then referred complaints to the Central Command, the latter did not in turn pass them to the chain of command, although some complaints were credible when they were submitted, according to the Inspector General of the US Defense Department.

And according to an official report issued by the Inspector General, on Thursday, November 18, “The Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, has informed the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, most, but not All, allegations of violations of the law of war in Syria.

In this context, officials in the US Central Command claimed that the whistleblower's allegations and violations were evaluated at the time, and found to lack credibility, and therefore were ignored.

The Inspector General, in turn, denied this allegation, asserting that at least one of the complaints was credible and should have been referred to the chain of command, as it constitutes a possible war crime, under international law and treaties.

The revealed facts, the Inspector General's report, which includes a comprehensive review of 11 military strikes carried out by the Central Command and the US Special Operations Command from 2018 to 2020, showed the deliberateness of US officials by ignoring complaints and manipulating the numbers of victims, in misrepresenting and obscuring the facts, To hide the humanitarian crime it committed in Syria under the banner of fighting ISIS.

American blackout and denial

After presenting the inspector general's report to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and congressional defense committees, Ost told a news conference on Wednesday, November 17, that "the 2019 strikes tragically killed 10 innocent civilians, including 7 children... and it must be ensured. The American people that we take this issue very seriously and that we are committed to protecting civilians."

Commenting on Auston's statement, Bloomberg questions the truth of the numbers made by the US minister during the press conference, which are still disputed and ambiguous to this day among US leaders in various institutions and international organizations that condemn crime and its manipulation at the same time.

For its part, Central Command wrote a response, which it included in the inspector general’s report, and ignored direct interaction with allegations about the fact that it ignored whistleblower complaints about killings of civilians in Syria, saying: “We do not object to a recommendation to develop updated procedures that reflect new Pentagon directives for prompt reporting of law-of-war incidents.” to be reported.”

Commenting on the report, Central Command spokesman Bill Urban said: "We appreciate the careful evaluation of the Law of War program by the Department of Defense's Inspector General, and as we have indicated, we intend to address the issues they identified to comply with updated Department of Defense policy."

While the friends of the issue are still resonating today with international public opinion, experts and analysts believe that the central leadership seems determined to bury this matter. Especially as it was clearly involved, as revealed by reports and investigations, copies of which were leaked to the media, in carrying out the air strikes, although the footage of the drones showed the presence of civilians at the time, and the warnings and complaints later ignored them, as confirmed by the report of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense.