The U.S. military has concluded that an airstrike last May in northwestern Syria killed a civilian, instead of a senior al Qaeda leader. The investigation found that the strike killed civilian Lutfi Hasan Masto, who was identified as the victim by social media reports at the time. The investigation did not recommend any accountability actions for killing a civilian and concluded that the strike complied with the law of armed conflict. The initial statement from CENTCOM on the day of the strike had claimed that the target was a senior al Qaeda leader, reaffirming the commitment to the region’s defeat of ISIS and al Qaeda.
Reports quickly surfaced after the strike that it had killed a civilian, not a terrorist. The White Helmets, a group of first responders in Syria, identified Masto as the civilian killed while he was grazing sheep when the strike occurred. An initial review by CENTCOM found enough evidence to launch a formal investigation more than a month later. Investigating officer Brig. Gen. John P. Cogbill led a team of 10 senior service members and civilian employees who were not directly involved with the strike. The team conducted site visits and interviewed over 40 witnesses during the investigation process.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan to limit civilian casualties in U.S. military operations in response to reports that operations in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan had killed more civilians than initially reported. This guidance came after a botched strike during the withdrawal from Afghanistan killed 10 civilians, including seven children. CENTCOM stated in its summary of the investigation that it is committed to the Action Plan and will incorporate lessons learned from this investigation to prevent future civilian casualties.
The investigation into the strike in Syria was conducted by a team with backgrounds in intelligence, law of armed conflict, operations, and targeting matters. The team went through training to eliminate biases, conducted site visits to various countries, and interviewed witnesses to gather information about the incident. Despite the findings that a civilian was killed in the airstrike, the investigation did not recommend any accountability actions for the incident. CENTCOM stated that it remains committed to preventing civilian harm in military operations and will learn from the mistakes made in this case to improve future operations.
The lack of accountability actions for killing a civilian in the airstrike raises questions about the effectiveness of the military’s processes for ensuring compliance with the law of armed conflict. The incident highlights the challenges of conducting military operations in complex environments like Syria, where civilians can be inadvertently harmed in the pursuit of targeting terrorist threats. By incorporating lessons learned from this investigation and the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan, the military can work to prevent civilian casualties in future operations and ensure greater transparency and accountability in its actions.
