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Thursday, September 5

Just exactly what did the U.S. bomb in Idlib on August 31?

From SouthFront, SYRIAN WAR REPORT – SEPTEMBER 3, 2019: RUSSIA ACCUSES U.S. OF SABOTAGING IDLIB CEASEFIRE
... On August 31, CENTCOM announced that the US military “conducted a strike against al-Qaida in Syria leadership at a facility north of Idlib”. It claimed that the strike “will further degrade their ability to conduct future attacks and destabilize the region.”
The strike took place shortly after the start of a unilateral truce announced by the Syrian Armed Forces in the Idlib zone. Local sources say that the strike targeted a camp of the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group Ansar al-Tawhid.
However, no casualties among the group’s top leadership or other prominent terrorist commanders operating in the area were reported. ..."
On August 31 SouthFront reported, U.S.-LED COALITION STRIKES AL-QAEDA HEADQUARTERS IN IDLIB, KILLS DOZENS OF TERRORISTS. Mainstream news outlets filed virtually the same report, and I featured SouthFront's report on my blog. SouthFront based its reporting on intel from SOHR, and that was probably the same for other outlets following the story. From the SouthFront August 31 report:
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 40 terrorists, including commanders, of Ansar al-Tawhid and other al-Qaeda-affiliated groups from the so-called Wa Harid al-Muminin operations room were killed in the U.S. strikes.
The claim is now open to question, given that the Russians don't seem to think the U.S. strike was anything to celebrate. From SouthFront's September 3 war report:
On September 1, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the recent US strike on Idlib province had “endangered the truce” in the area and “violated all previous arrangements.” The defense ministry noted that the air raid led to “multiple casualties and destruction”. ...
Frankly, I could kick myself for accepting SOHR's reporting as the only source for information on a bombing in Syria. Actually, SOHR could be right and the other sources could be wrong or lying, but the question about just what exactly the U.S. targeted on August 31 is another reminder to me not to fall prey to exuberance.   

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