Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday the Pentagon has opened a high-level inquiry into the U.S. airstrike that killed dozens of women and children near the Syrian town of Baghuz in March of 2019. This comes after a New York Times investigation found the military spent two-and-a-half years covering up the attack, even though the death toll was almost immediately apparent to military officials, with one legal officer flagging the attack as a possible war crime. U.S. military officials downplayed the death toll, delayed reports, and sanitized and classified evidence of civilian deaths. U.S.-led coalition forces bulldozed the blast site, and top military leaders were reportedly not notified.