US Officials Backtrack on Reports of Killing Al-Qaeda Leader in Syria After Family Claims Victim of Drone Strike Was a Sheep Herder and Father of 10

US officials are backtracking on claims they took out a top Al-Qaeda leader in a Syrian drone strike after the family of a sheep herder identified the victim.

Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, a local sheep herder and father of 10 was identified by the family as the victim in the hellfire missile strike.

Lotfi Hassan Misto

The Washington Post reported:

U.S. military officials are walking back claims that a recent strike in Syria killed an influential al-Qaeda figure, following assertions by the dead man’s family that he had no ties to terrorists but was a father of 10 tending to his sheep when he was slain by an American missile.

Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, whose family identified him as the victim of a Hellfire missile attack on May 3, was a former bricklayer who lived quietly in this town in northwest Syria, according to interviews with his brother, son and six others who knew him. They described a kind, hard-working man whose “whole life was spent poor.”

The operation was overseen by U.S. Central Command, which claimed hours after the strike, without citing evidence or naming a suspect, that the Predator drone strike had targeted a “senior Al Qaeda leader.” But now there is doubt inside the Pentagon about who was killed, two U.S. defense officials told The Washington Post.

The Biden regime also blew up a family in Kabul in 2021 after their disastrous surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Another embarrassment for the Biden regime on the international stage.


Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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