Pentagon admits Syrian airstrike killed civilian, not al Qaeda leader

The Pentagon acknowledged Thursday that it mistakenly killed a civilian in a 2023 airstrike in northwest Syria after U.S. service members misidentified the man as a senior al Qaeda leader.

An internal investigation found American forces “misidentified the intended Al Qaeda target and that a civilian, Mr. Lufti Hasan Masto (Masto), was struck and killed instead,” according to a U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) statement on the findings.

The U.S. military initially claimed that it had killed a senior al Qaeda leader in the May 3, 2023, strike in northwest Syria. Instead it targeted Masto, a 56-year-old shepherd.

U.S. officials quickly walked back the claims a senior al Qaeda figure had been killed and wrapped its probe in November, but did not publicly admit until Thursday that it had mistaken Masto as an al Qaeda official.