Syria Feature: US Military Admits — We Killed 2 Children During Airstrikes on Jabhat al-Nusra

The US military has admitted that it killed two children during airstrikes on the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra in northwest Syria in early November.

A statement from Central Command said the attacks, near Harem in Idlib Province, were directed “against a network of veteran Al Qa’eda operatives, sometimes called ‘Khorasan Group'” on November 5-6, 2014.

Activists and residents, circulating video, reported at the time that four children were among those killed by the airstrikes. They said that the attack hit not only Jabhat al-Nusra but also Ahrar al-Sham, a leading faction in the Islamic Front rebel coalition.

See Syria Daily, Nov 7: What Now in the US War on Insurgents?

The statement insisted:

The Department of Defense conducted a thorough assessment, review, and validation process of the targeted buildings, and assessed that the Khorasan Group was using them exclusively for military purposes. In that assessment process, there was no indication that there were children at any of the targeted buildings.

General James Terry, the head of the US task force for Iraq and Syria, said, “We regret the unintentional loss of lives. The Coalition continues to take all reasonable measures during the targeting process to mitigate risks to non-combatants.”

The scene of one attack:

On Wednesday, US warplanes carried out their latest attack on Jabhat al-Nusra, striking near Kafranbel in Idlib Province. Witnesses say at least four people were killed.

Journalist Hadi al-Abdallah at the scene:

US officials declared in September, days before it began airstrikes in Syria on both the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, that the “Khorasan Group” was planning attacks on targets in American and Europe.

The military has subsequently claimed that the airstrikes killed some of those plotting the attacks, though no evidence has confirmed this. Immediately after the Harem attacks, a Defense Department official claimed that a French bombmaker, Daoud Drugeon, was slain.

Within Jabhat al-Nusra, “Khorasan” refers to the area of Pakistan and Afghanistan from which some fighters have come.

The US attacks came days after Jabhat al-Nusra had defeated a US-supported faction, the Syrian Revolutionary Front, in northwest Syria. The Americans insisted that the airstrikes had nothing to do with the fighting, which arose over competing claims between Jabhat al-Nusra and the SRF of corruption, war profiteering, and the abduction and killing of each other’s members.