The US military has disputed local claims that US airstrikes Thursday killed dozens of Syrian civilians attending prayers at a village mosque, saying instead that the strike targeted and killed al Qaeda militants.
The local reports, which come via the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), say that the strike hit a mosque in the village of al-Jena, killing at least 42 people, most of whom were civilians, and injuring dozens of others. The report said the death toll was expected to rise.
The attack was also documented by the Syria Civil Defense, better known as the White Helmets, which seemed to corroborate the claims that the strike hit a mosque in the village. The group posted media of what it says shows its rescue operation amid the ruins of the mosque.
A US official confirmed that US planes conducted an airstrike in the area, on the border of the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, but claimed that they struck a building where it was believed there was an al Qaeda meeting, killing “several terrorists.”
The spokesman reported that the strikes destroyed half of the building, which had housed al Qaeda members at the time of the bombing.
The building was not a mosque, and was not being used as a mosque, the official says.
There was a mosque in the vicinity, he added, but recent satellite imagery shows that that building was still standing.
Central Command: We’ll investigate
US Central Command will look into any allegations of civilian casualties in the area, the spokesman said, but says it did not bomb a mosque as far as latest reports and intelligence shows.
Idlib has been a significant safe haven for al Qaeda in recent years, the spokesman added.
In January, a strike destroyed an al Qaeda terrorist training camp, where more than 100 fighters were being trained in terror tactics.
Earlier reports suggested the airstrike killed as many as 300 people.
SOHR said search and rescue efforts are ongoing at the site and told CNN death toll is likely to rise since dozens of people are still buried under the rubble.
The United States has targeted legacy al Qaeda fighters in Syria in past strikes. The Pentagon said 10 al Qaeda operatives were killed in a strike near Idlib in February. The US senior defense official told CNN an unmanned drone carried out that strike.
US airstrikes have hit civilian facilities before. In 2015, a US airstrike hit a hospital run by the NGO Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 people.