The New York Times spoke of the secret of the American the Talon Anvil team, which worked first from an “office” building in Erbil, Iraq, and then from an old cement plant in northern Syria.
They came “to work” in shorts and slippers, did not wear uniforms and did not name each other according to rank.
Members of the unit gathered intelligence, news, rumors and then ordered to hit the target using UAV MQ-9 Reaper and military aircraft, killing civilians.
In 2016, when the Americans needed success in the fight against IS, which was banned in Russia, the decision to strike was taken by ordinary members of the detachment without the consent of the leadership, which led to an increase in casualties.
They were not considered “collateral damage” and, with growing dissatisfaction with their work, switched to the format of strikes for “self-defense”, which under the rules in force at the time had a number of limitations as opposed to “offensive” operations.
The department operated in Syria from 2014 to 2019. On their “account” hundreds of civilians killed.