Washington. November 14th. INTERFAX - The United States has admitted that as a result of the bombing in 2019 of the vicinity of the Syrian city of Baguz, at least 80 people were killed, most of them women and children, but they justify the actions of their military, the New York Times reported.
According to her, on March 18, 2019, an American F-15E attack aircraft dropped two bombs in the Baguz area - first one weighing 500 pounds, then another weighing 2 thousand pounds on a crowd consisting mainly of women and children.
The newspaper noted that the US military, responding to its request about this incident, acknowledged this for the first time. They stated that up to 80 people were killed as a result of the bombing, but claimed that the strike was justified because 16 militants who were in the crowd were destroyed. In addition, they stated that it is unclear whether the rest of the dead were civilians or militants, since women and children in ISIS (Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in Russia) are known to have taken up arms.
The publication writes that the representative of the US Central Military Command, Bill Urban, said that an internal investigation of this airstrike was conducted.
"We are disgusted by the deaths of innocent people and are taking all possible measures to prevent them. In this particular case, we independently reported and investigated the bombing in accordance with our own evidence and take full responsibility for the unintentional loss of life," he said.
At the same time, the publication says, no real independent investigation has been conducted, although the fact of the death of people as a result of the bombing was reported to the leadership and the Armed Forces Committee of the US Senate by a US Air Force legal officer. He qualified the incident as a war crime.
