UN comments on US airstrikes killing 70 civilians in Syria

Responsibility for actions that result in the death of civilians must begin, Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq said following the New York Times article on the US airstrikes on Syria.

Report informs, citing foreign media, that the newspaper said the airstrikes killed dozens of civilians.

"We ... emphasized the importance of accountability for all actions that result in the death of civilians," Haq said.

The New York Times reports that the US military covered up 2019 airstrikes in Syria that killed up to 64 women and children, a possible war crime, during the battle against Islamic State.

According to the newspaper, the two back-to-back airstrikes near the town of Baghuz were ordered by a classified American special operations unit tasked with ground operations in Syria.

In a statement on Saturday, Central Command reiterated the account it gave the newspaper that 80 people were killed in the strikes, including 16 Islamic State fighters and four civilians. The military said it was unclear if the other 60 people were civilians, partly because women and children could have been combatants.

Without warning, a US F-15E attack jet streaked across the drone's high-definition field of vision and dropped a 500-pound bomb on the crowd. Then a jet dropped one 2,000-pound bomb, then another.

It was March 18, 2019. At the US military's busy Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, uniformed personnel watching the live drone footage looked on in stunned disbelief.

The Defense Department's inspector general launched an inquiry into the March 18, 2019, incident, but its report was ultimately "stripped" of any mention of the bombing, and a thorough, independent probe never took place, according to the Times. The newspaper said its report was based on confidential documents and descriptions of classified reports, as well as interviews with personnel directly involved.