UN supports punishment for civilian killings in US deadly airstrikes in Syria

United Nations, Nov 15 (UNI/Sputnik) Those responsible for the deaths of civilians as a result of the US airstrike in Syria must be punished, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, told Sputnik, commenting on a recent publication of the New York Times.

Haq said the United Nations would like to underscore the need for responsibility to be incurred for any actions that result in the deaths of innocent people.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the US military has been concealing an airstrike that killed dozens of civilians during the 2019 battle of Baghuz in Syria and is among the most devastating civilian casualty incidents in the fight against the Islamic State.

The incident reportedly took place on March 18, 2019 and resulted in up to 80 deaths. The strike is said to have been called in by Task Force 9, a secret US special operations unit that was responsible for ground operations in Syria.

According to the news outlet, an investigation into the incident never took place and that the military tried to conceal the strike. So much so that all mentions of the Baghuz incident were edited out from a recently released report by the Department of Defence Office of Inspector General was working on the civilian casualties reporting process.

When the newspaper sent its findings to the US Central Command, it admitted that the incident had taken place but stated that 16 militants and four civilians had been killed, while the status of the other 60 people was unclear since the Islamic State’s women and children occasionally fight as well.