{"id":14251,"date":"2017-03-16T23:42:02","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T23:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/?p=14251"},"modified":"2017-03-17T20:24:33","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T20:24:33","slug":"unilateral-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/unilateral-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: US says it carried out deadly strike that hit Aleppo mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>This article was updated on March 17th to reference new reports in Step News and the Washington Post.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Military officials have confirmed to Airwars that a strike in rural Aleppo which reportedly left dozens dead\u00a0in and around a mosque was carried out by US aircraft. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said that at least 42 people, mostly civilians, were killed in a strike that \u201ctargeted a mosque in al-Jinah village\u201d in the western countryside of Aleppo on March 16th. \u201cThe death toll is expected to rise,\u201d said the monitor. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Video posted by the White Helmets showed men being dug out from rubble at the site. Local activists told <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/03\/air-raids-mosque-aleppo-kill-dozens-170316195046804.html\" target=\"_blank\">al Jazeera<\/a><\/span> that the attack took place during evening prayer, when the mosque was full of \u201cup to 300 people.\u201d Other accounts put the death toll far higher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Initial reporting was conflicting, including assertions that Russian forces or the Assad regime were to blame. Photographs reportedly from the site and posted on social media also appeared to depict weapons fragments similar to those found at previous US drone strikes in Syria. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Photo shows the remnants of a bomb used in the airstrike on the \u2018Umar ibn Al-Kha\u1e6d\u1e6d\u0101b mosque in the rebel-held village of al-Jin\u0101, w-Aleppo. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aGsqMjcWIJ\">pic.twitter.com\/aGsqMjcWIJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sakir Khader (@sakirkhader) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sakirkhader\/status\/842480710606864384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/SyrianLense\/status\/842492968846180352<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Airwars was initially told by US Central Command (CENTCOM) that a strike was carried out late on March 16th, but in Idlib governorate. That is where the bulk of US strikes against alleged al Qaeda-linked targets have taken place since 2014. The unilateral American campaign exists in parallel to operations conducted by the anti-ISIS Coalition. Strikes and reported civilian casualties from both have risen significantly since last fall. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, a US official later clarified that the US raid in fact took place in the vicnity of\u00a0al-Jinah village, which is located in western Aleppo governorate, just a few kilometers from the border with Idlib. CENTCOM spokesperson Maj. Josh Jacques said the target was \u00a0\u201cassessed to be a meeting place for al Qaeda, and we took the strike.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt happened to be across the street from where there is a mosque,\u201d said Jacques. He said the mosque was not the target, and that it wasn\u2019t hit directly. Both CENTCOM and the Pentagon told Airwars that they were further investigating the attack. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Videos identified by researchers at the citizen journalism outlet Bellingcat appeared to show parts of the mosque destroyed, while others remained upright.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Northern side of mosque has collapsed due to American airstrike, but largest part still standing. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ak75roognl\">https:\/\/t.co\/ak75roognl<\/a> h\/t @CT_operative <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jM1CG2y8Ci\">pic.twitter.com\/jM1CG2y8Ci<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/trbrtc\/status\/842531838472192000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Citing local sources, the outlet Step News said the strikes hit a gathering known as a\u00a0<em>Dawah.\u00a0<\/em>A local group, reported Step &#8220;holds a meeting in one of their centres every Thursday which is attended by dozens of students of religious studies, sheikhs, sharia experts and fighters in the Islamic factions and civilians from the region.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On March 17th, the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/mounting-claims-of-civilian-deaths-after-us-targetsal-qaeda-in-syria\/2017\/03\/17\/350d5838-0ae9-11e7-8884-96e6a6713f4b_story.html?utm_term=.d02cba3fb8f6\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post<\/a><\/span>, citing a U.S. official, said that the attack &#8220;involved two Reaper drones, which fired four Hellfire missiles and dropped at least one 500-pound GPS-guided bomb.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The death toll, which could not immediately be confirmed, appears to be at least the second largest ever from US strikes aimed at alleged al-Qaeda targets in Syria. On January 19th, more than 100 fighters gathered at a training camp in Idlib were reportedly killed in a raid that involved a B-52 bomber. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of those killed were said to belong to the militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Al Qaeda\u2019s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al Nusra, officially claimed to split with the terror group in July 2016, renaming itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Since January 2017 it operates under the umbrella group Tahrir al-Sham. The US military carries out attacks\u00a0against alleged al Qaeda targets under the same 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that Congress passed several days after the 9\/11 attacks. The strikes employ an expansive definition of \u201cassociated forces\u201d &#8211; a phrase not used in the AUMF, but which has been adopted by the Pentagon and successive US administrations. It could now apply to thousands of fighters in Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US officials confirmed to Airwars that they hit an alleged al Qaeda meeting place that &#8220;happened to be across the street &#8221; from a mosque.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,22,35,87,25,31,132,133,3,11,12,4],"class_list":["post-14251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-airstrike","tag-airwars","tag-al-qaeda","tag-aleppo","tag-civilian-casualties","tag-civilians","tag-drones","tag-hts","tag-iraq","tag-isil","tag-isis","tag-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14251"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14311,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14251\/revisions\/14311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}