Pentagon says airstrike that reportedly killed al-Qaeda leader actually killed civilian instead

The Pentagon admitted on Thursday that it had accidentally killed a civilian shepherd in an airstrike in Syria last year, instead of the senior al-Qaeda official it believed the civilian was. 

United States officials ordered the airstrike in May 2023, after service members said the man, Lufti Hasan Masto, was connected to al-Qaeda. But the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) ordered a probe of the airstrike in June, after family members of the man said he had no connections to any terrorists. U.S. officials had previously walked back claims that the "senior al-Qaeda official" was killed, but never admitted he was a civilian, according to the Hill.

The internal investigation, which wrapped in November, also revealed other areas of improvement for the U.S. military in the future, but determined the strike was done in “compliance with the law of armed conflict as well as Department of Defense and CENTCOM policies.” The other issues were not disclosed because they contained classified information, officials said.

“We are committed to learning from this incident and improving our targeting processes to mitigate potential civilian harm,” CENTCOM said in a statement. It also said it “acknowledges and regrets the civilian harm that resulted from the airstrike.”

Masto had reportedly been tending to his animals on his property when the strike occurred. A U.S. predator drone had been tracking the man, and U.S. officials launched a hellfire missile into a rocky area outside of his home in the attack, according to the Washington Post. U.S. officials believed the mission was successful at first, but the target had escaped. Masto was the only human casualty, but some of his sheep were also killed.

An unnamed defense official told the Post that military personnel monitoring the area in northern Syria relied on information from people on the ground, and things they intercepted, which pointed them in Masto's direction.

“We had been tracking [Masto] for some time under the belief that he was the target,” the defense official said.

It is not clear who the real target was, whether he is still alive and active, or how they failed to notice that Masto was innocent. It is also not clear why the report was released roughly six months after the internal review was finished.

The report comes after the Biden administration vowed to cut down on civilian casualties, and promised to improve transparency in the cases that civilian casualties occurred.