“The Secretary has directed today a review of the civilian casualty incident that occurred on March 18, 2019 in Baghuz, Syria," Kirby said on Monday. "The inquiry will include an assessment of the following things: the civilian casualties that resulted from the incident, compliance with the law of war, record keeping and reporting procedures, whether mitigation measure identified in previous investigations into the incident were in fact implemented effectively, whether accountability measures would be appropriate, and finally, whether authorities, procedures or processes should be altered."
US Army Forces Command chief Michael Garrett will lead the effort and has been given 90 days to complete the inquiry, Kirby added.
The airstrike is reported to have killed up to 80 people. It was said to have been called in by Task Force 9, a secret US special operations unit responsible for ground operations in Syria. An investigation into the incident never occurred, and mentions of it were removed from a recent Defense Department report on the civilian casualties reporting process, US media reported.
The US Central Command is reported to have said the strike killed 16 militants and four civilians, while the status of another 60 people was unclear, as Daesh* occasionally uses women and children as fighters too.
Back in 2019, the Syrian Human Rights Network told Sputnik that the US-led international coalition to defeat the Daesh and the Syrian Democratic Forces must be held accountable for the 12-hours bombing of Baghuz, in which civilians were used as human shields by the terrorists, who prevented them from leaving the last stronghold they controlled.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other states