The New York Times: US forces bombed the Euphrates Dam in 2017, endangering the lives of thousands of civilians

The New York Times revealed that US forces bombed the Euphrates Dam in 2017 with heavy bombs, threatening the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and that their claims at the time that the dam was not targeted were incorrect.

The newspaper, quoting two former high-ranking US officials, said that on March 26, 2017, members of the US special operations unit called “Task Force 9” bombed the dam using one of the largest conventional bombs in the American arsenal, including at least one “Blue 109” bomb designed to destroy thick concrete structures, despite a military report warning against bombing the dam because it could flood the river and kill tens of thousands of civilians and despite the dam being considered on the US “no-bomb” list.

Two days after the operation, the commander of the US forces at the time, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, denied US responsibility, claiming that the dam was “not a target of the coalition.”

The newspaper pointed out that the Euphrates Dam is characterized as “protected”, and the decision to bomb it is usually issued by the highest level in the US military command, noting that three workers who rushed to prevent the disaster were killed in another air raid of the US coalition, according to witnesses from the dam workers.