The Pentagon announced Tuesday that an inquiry into a US attack in Syria in 2019 that killed multiple people found no breaches of policy or willful incompetence.

The internal US Army inquiry centered on a March 18, 2019, attack on a Daesh stronghold in Baghouz by a special US group operating in Syria.

The probe was launched last year after the New York Times reported that the US military had covered up scores of non-combatant deaths during the first operation.

According to the Times, the strike killed 70 individuals, many of them were women and children.

The Times report said a US legal officer “flagged the strike as a possible war crime” and that “at nearly every step, the military made moves that concealed the catastrophic strike.”

However, the investigation’s final report, released on Tuesday, rejected that judgment.

According to the report, the US ground force commander for the anti-Daesh coalition received a request for air strike assistance from the Syrian Democratic Forces fighting the militants.

The strike was approved after the commander “got assurance that no civilians were in the striking area.”

They subsequently discovered, however, that there were people present.

“No Rules of Engagement or Law of War violations occurred,” the investigation said.

Furthermore, the commander “did not intentionally or willfully inflict civilian casualties,” according to the report.

According to the investigation, “administrative shortcomings” delayed US military reporting on the operation, creating the impression that it was hushed up.

According to an initial evaluation of the event, about 70 individuals might have been killed, according to the Times.

According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, 52 fighters were killed, 51 of them were adult adults and one kid, while four civilians, one mother, and three children, were slain.

Another 15 bystanders were injured, including 11 women and four children, he added.

When asked if anyone was being penalized for the civilian fatalities, Kirby said the probe found no reason to hold anyone accountable.

The probe “did not find that anybody acted outside the law of war, that there was no malicious intent,” Kirby said.

“While we don’t always get everything right, we do try to improve. We do try to be as transparent as we can about what we learn,” he said.

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