(Newswire.net — October 12, 2014) — Despite lunching 46 cruise missiles last month on eight locations in northern Syria to destroy the Khorasan group’s training camps, there were only one or two key militants killed, US officials told the Associated Press.
The officials said US-led airstrikes were ineffective because IS members were able to scatter as they learned of the targets from the media, highlighting a September 13 report by the AP, which disclosed the group’s significance, causing members to flee.
“The Associated Press can speak only for itself and its reporting. The AP’s Sept. 13 story revealing the name and other details about the Khorasan Group was the product of weeks of reporting with sources, most of whom were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Representatives of the US government asked the AP to withhold from the story some details AP had confirmed, but the AP declined to do that.” Erin Madigan White AP Senior Media Relations Manager responded.
Questions about civilian deaths from US counterterrorism operations sometimes result in heated internal policy debates on effectiveness of the air strikes.
According to local activist Mohammed Abu Omar, one of the cruise missiles killed a dozen civilians in a town west of Aleppo.
“The air strikes were justified, as the intelligence report shows that IS was in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks against Western targets and potentially the US homeland “said Army Lt. Gen William Maybille, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.
“Nothing is perfect,” said Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger in an interview given to Yahoo News.
“Whatever civilian deaths resulted from the US strikes are much less than the brutality of the Assad regime.” he said admitting that he heard there were civilian casualties, but he “didn’t get details.”
“For me and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live.” said Obama addressing the subject in a speech at the National Defense University, as he acknowledged for the first time that US strikes have resulted in civilian casualties.
The targets hit by guided missiles were in territory controlled by the Nusra Front, a sometimes ally of the US backed rebels in its war with the Islamic State and the Syrian regime.