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US claims deadly Syria strike, denies targeting mosque

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The US military said it carried out a deadly air strike on an al-Qaeda meeting in northern Syria and would investigate reports that more than 40 civilians were killed when a mosque was struck in the raid.
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Washington – The US military said on Thursday it carried out a deadly air strike on an Al-Qaeda meeting in northern Syria and would investigate reports that more than 40 civilians were killed when a mosque was struck in the raid.
« We did not target a mosque, but the building that we did target – which was where the meeting took place – is about 15 meters from a mosque that is still standing, » said Colonel John J. Thomas, spokesperson for US Central Command.
According to a Centcom statement, « US forces conducted an airstrike on an al-Qaeda in Syria meeting location March 16 in Idlib, Syria, killing several terrorists.  »
The Centcom spokesperson later clarified that the precise location of the strike was unclear – but that it was the same one widely reported to have targeted the village mosque in Al-Jineh, in Aleppo province.
« We are going to look into any allegations of civilian casualties in relation to this strike, » he added, when asked about reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that 42 people died, most of them civilians.
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