[3] On the morning of 18 March 2019, during the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, the Syrian Democratic Forces had repelled an hours-long Islamic State counterattack that nearly overran a position.

[5][6][2] The U.S. aircraft dropped two bombs on a crowd of people, which were, according to The New York Times, mostly women and children who were trying to escape the fighting on the banks of the Euphrates, near the Syria-Iraq border.

According to the report by The New York Times, the crowd had been identified as civilians by U.S. drone operators based in Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar.

The human rights organization Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently called the incident a "terrible massacre" and posted photos of the bodies.

Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington and the chairman of the panel, said in an email to The New York Times that "Both the incident and the efforts to cover it up are deeply disturbing.