A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan on its way to another wartime mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson).
A man killed earlier this month in a United States drone strike that targeted the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib was a shepherd, not a senior al-Qaeda leader as the Central Command (CENTCOM) had claimed, according to reports by The Washington Post and CNN.
60-year-old Lotfi Hassan Masto, a father of ten, was grazing his sheep near his house in the town of Qurqania in the northern Idlib countryside on May 3 when he was targeted by a U.S. combat drone.
Video footage from the scene of the strike showed the remains of an AGM-114 Hellfire laser-guided missile that was reportedly fired from an MQ-9 Reaper.
At the time, CENTCOM said that the strike targeted a senior al-Qaeda leader. The command, which oversees operations in the Middle East and the surrounding region, added it would provide more information “as operational details become available.” However, the command didn’t release any details about the intended target in the two weeks that followed.
The Washington Post first reported on May 18 that the US military is investigating whether a civilian was killed in the strike. Later on May 20, a report by CNN confirmed that the victim of the strike was Masto.
CENTCOM “has been made aware of allegations that the strike may have resulted in a civilian casualty” and is investigating to see where the strike “may have unintentionally resulted in harm to civilians,” Central Command spokesperson Michael Lawhorn said in a statement, according to CNN.
The U.S. military is not present in Greater Idlib. However, its combat drones are very active over the region, which is guarded by the Turkish military and de-facto ruled by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
In the last few years, several senior leaders of ISIS and al-Qaeda-affiliated groups were killed in U.S. drone strikes and helicopter raids in Greater Idlib. However, none of the targets were working for or allied with HTS. The terrorist group didn’t issue any condemnation over the strike that killed Masto.
U.S. counter-terrorism operations in the region are not coordinated with the Syrian government. These operations are typically launched from bases in the occupied parts of the country’s northern and eastern regions, or from neighboring Iraq.
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