Two Navy SEALs testified Friday that their platoon chief gunned down a young girl and an old man in Iraq in 2017 from his sniper's perch, though neither witnessed him pulling the trigger.
The SEALs said shots came from the tower where Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was posted and they watched through their scopes as the civilians fell to the ground.
Dalton Tolbert said he and another sniper were in a neighbouring tower in Mosul on June 18, 2017, and had fired warnings shots to scatter civilians by the Tigris River because the Islamic State was operating in the area.
An old man in a white tunic began running and then Tolbert heard a third shot come from the neighbouring tower where Gallagher was positioned and saw the man fall.
Over the radio, he heard Gallagher say: "You guys missed him, but I got him."
Vriens said Friday that he never saw the killing, but said later that day a fellow SEAL who was viewing photos of the dead militant on a laptop shared by the platoon asked Gallagher, "Is this the guy?"
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