2017 al-Jinah airstrike

2017 al-Jinah airstrike
Part of the Syrian Civil War and the American-led intervention in Syria
Location	36°06′28″N 36°47′13″E / 36.1079°N 36.7870°E / 36.1079; 36.7870[1]
Date	16 March 2017
Executed by	United States[2]
Casualties	38–49[3][4][5] killed 26–100+[3][6] injured
Al-Jinah

On 16 March 2017, an airstrike by the United States Armed Forces killed up to 49 people in the rebel-held village of al-Jinah near Aleppo, Syria.^[7] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and local officials reported that the building struck was a mosque filled with worshipers.^[8][9] Rami Abdel Rahman, head of SOHR, said the structure was a mosque which held over 300 people^[4] at the time of the strike.^[10] In May 2017, a US Central Command investigation determined that the building was indeed part of a mosque-complex.^[11] The US military had originally said the structure bombed was an al-Qaeda meeting place that was not a mosque itself but was next to a mosque, which was undamaged.^[2] In September 2017, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria concluded that "United States forces failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects, in violation of international humanitarian law."^[3] The UN commission's findings did not support the U.S. claim that an al-Qaeda meeting was taking place.^[3] Investigations by Human Rights Watch and Forensic Architecture also did not find any evidence of an al-Qaeda meeting.^[12][13]