Syria’s permanent delegation to UN: Results of American investigations into Baghouz massacre are biased and misleading

Syria’s permanent delegation to the United Nations confirmed that the investigations of the US Department of Defense regarding the massacre committed by the American occupation forces against civilians in the village of Baghouz in the countryside of Deir Ezzor on March 18, 2019 are biased and represent a clear attempt to exonerate these forces and absolve them of their direct responsibility for the killing  of innocent people, claiming to combat ISIS.

The scandal of the US occupation army covering up the fact that it had committed the Baghouz massacre, which was published by the American newspaper The New York Times, forced the Pentagon to announce the opening of an investigation into it. But, as expected, the investigations reached misleading conclusions aimed at exonerating the occupation forces. The Pentagon released an executive summary of an airstrike conducted March 18, 2019, following a much-anticipated review process. It found that the attack that killed what initial estimates said was about 70 people, including civilians, at an (ISIS) encampment in the eastern city of Baghuz did not violate rules of engagement or laws of war.

Syria’s permanent delegation to the United Nations said in a statement to the American magazine Newsweek, “These biased investigations cannot deny the fact that a crime against humanity has occurred in Baghouz. It launched military strikes under the pretext of fighting terrorism without approval or coordination with the government of the Syrian Arab Republic.

In the article published by journalist Tom O’Connor in the magazine, the delegation described the results of investigations into the Baghouz massacre as “a clear attempt to absolve the American occupation forces in Syria of their direct responsibility for civilian casualties under the pretext of fighting the terrorist organization ISIS.” It pointed out that the claim that there is insufficient or inaccurate information about the presence of civilians and efforts to distinguish between civilians and ISIS personnel are all “mere empty justifications that are refuted by the fact that civilians were killed.”

The delegation noted that there are “serious questions about the reasons for not addressing such gaps previously, especially that the Baghouz massacre is not the first of its kind,” stressing the necessity of “the immediate withdrawal of US forces from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, holding them accountable for their crimes, and obligating them to compensate the victims.”

The results of the announcement of the investigations into the Baghouz massacre led to tension between journalists and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, who considered that the US military should not be punished because, according to him, “they simply do what their mission requires according to the laws of war.”

The so-called “international coalition” led by the United States has committed dozens of massacres against Syrians by bombing residential areas in the countryside of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa and Hasakah, in addition to destroying infrastructure under the pretext of fighting the terrorist organization “ISIS”.

The crimes of the American forces were not limited to Syria or Iraq, as the air raids launched in Afghanistan over the twenty years of occupation caused thousands of innocent civilian casualties. Until the last moment of the chaotic and unorganized withdrawal of the American forces from Kabul, they committed a new crime by firing a missile at a civilian car, which resulted in the killing of ten civilians on board, including seven children.

Inas Abdulkareem