The US airstrike on the al-Jinah village mosque
On May 18, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) executed a civilian named “Fawaz Ali al-Ahmad” in the village of al-Jinah in the western Aleppo countryside after accusing him of being a “spy” for the US-led coalition, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Syrian opposition activists claimed that al-Ahmad had been responsible for an airstrike on a mosque in the village of al-Jinah on March 16, 2017. Between 40 and 60 civilians including women and children were killed in the airstrike carried out by two MQ-9 reaper unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) of the US-led coalition.
Back then, US Army Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Josh Jacques confirmed that the US had carried out the airstrike on al-Jinah but said that the area had been “assessed to be a meeting place for al-Qaeda.”
However, the Human Right Watch said in a report, which was released on April 18, 2017, that they had not found any evidence to support the allegation that members of al-Qaeda or any other armed group were meeting in the al-Jinah village mosque when the airstrike was carried out.
According to local observers, the execution of al-Ahmad is aimed at hiding details of the al-Jinah massacre, especially that HTS didn’t release the evidences it had against him.
