Pentagon files reveal flaws in U.S. claims about Syrian casualties in Baghdadi raid
Editor's note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Confidential documents obtained by NPR provide new details about one of the most celebrated U.S. military operations in recent history — and reveal flaws in the Pentagon's claim that deadly airstrikes did not hit civilians.
In 2019, U.S. special operations forces raided the Syrian hideout of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leading him to blow himself up. Then-President Donald Trump called the raid "impeccable," and military officials said troops protected noncombatants.
The U.S. Defense Department dismissed the accounts reported by NPR of U.S. helicopter fire killing and maiming Syrian civilians during the raid. The Pentagon said those men were enemy combatants who ignored warning shots.
NPR sued the Pentagon under the Freedom of Information Act to release documentation of the airstrikes, and it obtained a redacted copy of the Defense Department's confidential 2020 report on the incident. The report was originally classified as secret with no foreign distribution. NPR's review of the documents, including aerial imagery from the operation, finds:
- U.S. troops fired warning shots mere seconds before launching airstrikes on the Syrian men's van. This undermines the military's assertion
