{"id":33295,"date":"2017-03-18T13:04:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T13:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/us-insists-al-jinah-raid-targeted-al-qaeda-not\/"},"modified":"2017-03-18T13:04:51","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T13:04:51","slug":"us-insists-al-jinah-raid-targeted-al-qaeda-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/us-insists-al-jinah-raid-targeted-al-qaeda-not\/","title":{"rendered":"US insists al-Jinah raid targeted al-Qaeda, not mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"

{After reports of dozens of civilians killed, Pentagon releases picture of the site of a US raid in Aleppo province.}<\/p>\n

The US has denied hitting a mosque in Syria where activists say dozens of people, mostly civilians, were killed.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon said the US targeted an “al-Qaeda gathering across the street from a mosque”, and released footage showing that a mosque next to a destroyed building remained standing. It said the photo was taken less than five minutes after the strike on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Syrian opposition activists said at least 40 people were killed in the Omar Ibn al-Khattab Mosque in al-Jinah village in Aleppo province. They accused the US of carrying out the raid.<\/p>\n

Friday prayers were cancelled across rebel-held parts of northern Syria after the raid.<\/p>\n

Bahaa al-Halaby, an Aleppo-based opposition activist based, said the air raid hit as about 250 people had gathered at the mosque for prayers or to attend a religious lesson.<\/p>\n

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strike on the mosque killed 46 while the Local Coordination Committees, another monitoring group, said 40 were killed. <\/p>\n

Resident Abu Muhammed told the AFP news agency that he “heard powerful explosions when the mosque was hit. It was right after prayers at a time when there are usually religious lessons for men in it.<\/p>\n

“I saw 15 bodies and lots of body parts in the debris when I arrived. We couldn’t even recognise some of the bodies,” he said<\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesman, Eric Pahon, said US surveillance of the target area indicated evening prayers already had concluded before the attack.<\/p>\n

He said the building that was struck was a “partially constructed community meeting hall” that al-Qaeda leaders used to gather and “as a place to educate and indoctrinate al-Qaeda fighters”.<\/p>\n

“Initial assessments based upon post-strike analysis do not indicate civilian casualties,” Pahon said. He said the Pentagon would investigate any credible allegations it received.<\/p>\n

Al-Jinah lies in one of the main rebel-held parts of Syria, encompassing the western parts of Aleppo province and neighbouring Idlib.<\/p>\n

Bilal Abdul Kareem, a documentary filmmaker, visited the mosque and posted footage online.<\/p>\n

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory, which monitors the war via a network of contacts across Syria, said that most of those killed were civilians.<\/p>\n

Activists posted pictures of bodies scattered on the floor near the mosque.<\/p>\n

Teams with the White Helmets, or Syria Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group that operates in rebel-held parts of Syria, shared images of people being pushed into ambulances and panic-stricken residents searching among the rubble for survivors.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{After reports of dozens of civilians killed, Pentagon releases picture of the site of a US raid in Aleppo province.} The US has denied hitting a mosque in Syria where activists say dozens of people, mostly civilians, were killed. The Pentagon said the US targeted an “al-Qaeda gathering across the street from a mosque”, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33295"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33295"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}