Updated | The U.S. military revealed Thursday that a U.S.-led coalition airstrike accidentally struck a position in Syria held by allied forces, resulting in numerous casualties.
U.S. Central Command said a misdirected airstrike Tuesday killed 18 fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces south of the Tabqa Dam, according to the Associated Press. In a press statement, The U.S. said it was given false coordinates by "partnered forces" that believed the SDF positions to be held by militants of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.
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The U.S. has supported the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurd-dominated coalition of Arabs and ethnic minorities that opposed ISIS. The U.S. and the SDF have been involved in a major offensive to oust ISIS from their de facto headquarters of Raqqa in northern Syria and have battled the jihadists for control of the Tabqa Dam, about 25 miles west of Raqqa. In Thursday's press release, the U.S. offered its condolences to the SDF and the families of the slain fighters. The U.S. also said it was "assessing the cause of the incident" and would "implement appropriate safeguards to prevent similar incidents in the future."
- @CENTCOM statement on the 18 Syrian Defense Forces mistakenly killed in an airstrike near Tabqah, Syria pic.twitter.com/ZWmxVDbFac
— Tamer El-Ghobashy (@TamerELG) April 13, 2017
The SDF, one faction of Syria's six-year civil war, has not officially endorsed the Syrian government led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, nor the various armed insurgent groups attempting to overthrow him. The group, however, has grown closer to Assad as Syrian rebels allied with Turkey, which opposed militant Kurdish groups due to an ongoing insurgency between Kurdish nationalists and the Turkish state.
The People's Protection Units (YPG), one of the most prominent Kurdish militant groups in Syria, has also received training from Russia, which has sponsored Assad since the conflict began in 2011 and intervened directly in 2015.
This story was updated to include a press release by U.S. Central Command.
This is a developing story.
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