Airstrike targeting British hacker working for Isis killed three civilians instead, US admitsAn August airstrike targeting a British hacker for the Islamic State (Isis) instead killed three civilians and wounded five more, the US military has announced.
A US airstrike meant for Junaid Hussain near the militant group’s Syrian capital of Raqqa on 13 August, instead killed noncombatants said to be “in the vicinity” of the strike.
The US Central Command had not previously acknowledged killing civilians instead of Hussain. An account it released Friday simply said the strike was “targeting” Hussain.
The UK military played a “consulting” role in the 24 August strike that actually killed Hussain, Central Command has previously confirmed to the Guardian.
Central Command did not provide any additional detail on the dead and wounded civilians. A spokesman, Lt. Commander Ben Tisdale, told the Guardian that Hussain was present at the site of the 13 August strike and wounded in it.
It is unclear if the UK was involved in the strike, nor is it clear if civilians died in the later strike that killed Hussain.
But in a continuation of recent acknowledgments that its strikes have caused civilian casualties, the command also said that it had injured three other non-combatants and killed two in three airstrikes that took place in Iraq between July and October.
Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/29/sis-airstrike-syria-civilians-killed-us-military-junaid-hussain
