---
title: "U.S. officials walk back claim drone strike killed senior al-Qaeda leader"
type: "post"
post_id: "4288"
slug: "u-s-officials-walk-back-claim-drone-strike-killed-senior-al-qaeda-leader"
canonical: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/05/20/u-s-officials-walk-back-claim-drone-strike-killed-senior-al-qaeda-leader/"
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json_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/05/20/u-s-officials-walk-back-claim-drone-strike-killed-senior-al-qaeda-leader.json"
txt_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/05/20/u-s-officials-walk-back-claim-drone-strike-killed-senior-al-qaeda-leader.txt"
published: "2023-05-20T19:28:41+00:00"
modified: "2023-05-20T19:28:41+00:00"
author: "penny2"
categories:
  - "Uncategorized"
tags:
  - "Kurds"
  - "state sponsored terrorism"
  - "Syria"
  - "US"
site_name: "PFYT2"
publisher: ""
language: "en-US"
generator: "easyPress Markdown"
generator_version: "1.0.6"
---
**The US has been making numerous wild claims about killing so called al- Qaeda leaders in Syria- Not a one of them can be trusted.** **I’ve included two of my previous reports on this very topic. Lies, lies and more lies.**

[Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/18/pentagon-drone-strike-syria-civilian-al-qaeda/)

**U.S. military officials are walking back claims that a recent strike in Syria killed an influential al-Qaeda figure, following assertions by the dead man’s family that he had no ties to terrorists but was a father of 10 tending to his sheep when he was slain by an American missile.**

Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, whose family identified him as the victim of a Hellfire missile attack on May 3, was a former bricklayer **who lived quietly in this town in northwest Syria, according to interviews with his brother, son and six others who knew him. They described a kind, hard-working man whose “whole life was spent poor.”**

The **operation was overseen by U.S. Central Command, [which claimed](https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1653730332393324546?s=20) hours after the strike, without citing evidence or naming a suspect, that the Predator drone strike had targeted a “senior Al Qaeda leader.”** But now there is doubt inside the Pentagon about who was killed, two U.S. defense officials told The Washington Post.

***“We are no longer confident we killed a senior AQ official,” o***ne official said. The other, offering a slightly different view, said “though we believe the strike did not kill the original target, we believe the person to be al-Qaeda.”

![](https://i0.wp.com/pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-6.png?resize=580%2C240&ssl=1)**A video by the Syrian Civil Defense, often referred to as the “White Helmets,” captures the moment**s after a U.S. strike killed Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, on May 3.

**The strike was confirmed by the “White Helmets”**

### The strike

> Details about what transpired before and after the U.S. attack were **gathered from interviews with Misto’s family and neighbors and images provided by the Syrian Civil Defense, a humanitarian response group often referred to as the “White Helmets” that responded to the strike location within minutes.**

> Misto’s neighbors described his routines of drinking tea with family and friends, tending to his animals and leaving home mostly to pray at his mosque. He was “old-fashioned,” they said, and did not own a phone.

> [Senior ISIS Leader Killed in US Airstrike, Confirmed by White Helmets?](https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/04/04/senior-isis-leader-killed-in-us-airstrike-confirmed-by-white-helmets/)



> [U.S. Special Forces Quietly Hunting ISIS?](https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2023/04/17/u-s-special-forces-quietly-hunting-isis/)