QORQANYA, Syria (AP) – The U.S. military is investigating reports that it killed a civilian in a recent strike in northwest Syria that meant to target a senior Al-Qaeda leader, a military official said in a statement.
Relatives and neighbors of a 60-year-old man killed in the May 3 strike in the village of Qorqanya, a rural area in northern Idlib province, told The Associated Press that he was a farmer who raised sheep, chickens and cattle and had no involvement with terrorist groups.
In an initial statement released the day of the strike, U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, said its forces had “conducted a unilateral strike ... targeting a senior Al-Qaeda leader.” It did not provide any further details.
Maj. John Moore, a CENTCOM spokesperson, said that U.S. forces “are in the process of confirming the identity of the individual killed in the strike.”
“We are aware of the allegations of a civilian casualty and the outcome of the confirmation process will inform if further investigation is necessary and how it should proceed,” he said.
A local civil defense group in northwest Syria said in a statement that it had responded to the site after hearing sounds of an explosion and found that a drone strike had killed 60-year-old Lutfi Hassan Masto, a local resident who was tending his sheep at the time. Three of the animals were also killed, the statement said.
Masto’s brother, Mohamed Masto, told The Associated Press that reports that his brother was involved in Al-Qaeda were “absolute lies” and that his killing was “an injustice and an aggression.”
“He had nothing to do with the war. ... He had nothing to do with the Al-Nusra Front or with the Daesg” or any of the other armed groups involved in Syria’s 12-year-old foreign-backed war, Masto said.
Fayad Jamil Raji, a neighbor, said he had known Lufti Masto — or “Abu Hassan,” a nickname meaning “father of Hassan” — for many years.
“The man was a civilian. He had a farm with poultry, cows and sheep,” he said.