PRESS RELEASE
Was U.S. Attack on Syrian Troops Really an Accident?
Sept. 19, 2016 (EIRNS)—Retired Defense Intelligence Agency officer Col. W. Patrick Lang, in a comment posted on his blog yesterday, questioned the U.S. military’s assertion that the U.S. air strike on Syrian troops in Deir Ez Zor on Sept. 17 was an accident.
Lang notes that many of the readers of his blog know that accidents of that sort can happen.
"But, there are some unusual things about this ‘error,’" he writes.
"The SAA [Syrian Arab Army] has been occupying these positions for six months or so. Presumably U.S. imagery and SIGINT analysts have been looking at them all that time and producing map overlays that show who is where in detail. These documents would be widely available, especially to air units and their targeteers. U.S. coalition-led air has not struck previously in the Deir al-Zor area. Why now? Were they asked to strike? The U.S. does not talk to the Syrian government. How would they have been asked? Who would have designated the targets? They struck in the presence of SAA troops without any ground liaison? And what of the timing, two days before the U.S.-Russian deal was to be expanded into active cooperation?"
After taking note of U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power’s outburst after the emergency UN Security Council meeting called by Russia, Lang concludes: "IMO [in my opinion] it is an open question as to whether these air strikes on the SAA were accidental."
