Pentagon Investigation: US Hit Mosque Complex in Syria

Local Editor

A US Central Command investigation found that a March US airstrike in northern Syria did in fact strike a building that was part of a "mosque complex," two US officials told CNN Thursday.

Instead, in the initial hours following the strike by US drones and aircraft, the Pentagon insisted that it hit only a building some 40 feet away from the mosque, where it said al-Qaeda members were holding a meeting.

It is that building that the US ‘unwittingly' bombed at the time of the strike, according the officials. As a result of the investigation, officials found that the facility had been used for religious purposes in the past.

Typically any religious structure would be on a so-called no-strike list, along with hospitals and schools.

There are procedures to move structures off the no-strike list if it is clear they have lost their protected status because terrorists are using them and there are no civilians present.

At the time of the strike, the US still believed the building was being used by al-Qaeda, according to the officials. But neither would say if the building had ever been on a no-strike list, or had been removed from such a list.

It is also not clear if the building was listed as a religious site on a database that the mission planners were unaware of.

Source: CNN, Edited by website team