U.S. Central Command has acknowledged U.S. fighter jets recently bombed three mosques in ISIS-held territory in Syria. The guidelines of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) usually prohibit such attacks, according to reporter Jack Detsch of al-Monitor, the reliable. Washington-based Middle East news site.
In April 2017, U.S. fighter jets struck a mosque next to a building where al-Qaeda leaders were said to be meeding (CNN)
Detsch reports:
A Pentagon strike on a mosque would typically take considerable planning. The Defense Intelligence Agency has a no-strike list to protect noncombatants on battlefields where US warplanes are active. But the Pentagon can overturn those protections if it determines that militants are using schools, hospitals or religious buildings to target US troops..
“Such intensity of coalition strikes and civilian harm claims has not been seen since the capture of Raqqa from a year ago,” said Chris Woods, director of Airwars, a nonprofit which tracks civilian deaths and injuries from US-led strikes in the IS fight. The news of the mosque strikes, he said, “does indicate a troubling shift in tempo by the US-led alliance, which is placing civilians more at risk.”
