U.S. Military Confirms First Civilian Casualties In War Against Islamic State

[Purveyor]

Source: Washington Post

By Missy Ryan and Karen DeYoung May 21 at 5:47 PM

American airstrikes have killed at least two civilians since they began in Iraq and Syria last year, the Pentagon said Thursday, in its first acknowledgment of noncombatant deaths in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State.

The U.S. Central Command, announcing the results of a four-month investigation, said it had concluded that two children were likely killed in the Nov. 5-6, 2014 strikes around the city of Harim in Syria. The strikes targeted an al-Qaeda cell known as the Khorasan group.

Centcom is investigating three other reports of civilian casualties: two in Iraq and another in Syria, officials said.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Centcom findings, said investigators faced a difficult task in establishing the results of air attacks in a conflict with few U.S. troops on the ground. About 3,000 U.S. troops are training and advising local troops in Iraq; there are no U.S. forces in Syria.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-to-rush-anti-tank-weapons-to-iraq-to-counter-islamic-state/2015/05/21/d371ab5c-ffe0-11e4-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html

[jtuck004]

1. "American airstrikes have killed at least two civilians since they began in Iraq and Syria last year

"

It must take an amount of gall equal to the state of New Jersey to write that.

Interesting how they seem to conflate a years worth of air strikes with one mission they are investigating, and the results from that are seen as a referendum on all the others. And narrow it to just that territory.

Friggin' Kabuki to the people here, while the whole rest of the world is backstage wondering what the hell has us so mesmerized.