American court acquits paratrooper charged in Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A court-martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in the US acquitted the paratrooper who was accused of leading a patrol into an unnecessary gunfight in Syria before ordering soldiers to delete videos of the incident.
The jury was comprised of two lieutenant colonels and six command sergeants major. They found Sergeant First Class Robert Nicoson not guilty of all seven allegations. A motion for a finding of not guilty was granted to an eighth allegation at the end of the evidence phase, the soldiers’ civilian defense attorney Phillip Stackhouse told Army Times.
The charges against Nicoson came after an August 17, 2020 incident at a checkpoint in northeastern Syriamanned by soldiers loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Nicoson’s patrol drove up to the checkpoint and a gunfight unfolded the Army Times said.
Originally, Nicoson was charged with dismounting his vehicle and threatening to kill the pro-regime fighters if they did not allow his unit, Blackhorse Troop, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, through. U.S. officials said at the time of the incident that the Americans had initially been cleared to move through the checkpoint, the Army Times noted.
After receiving safe passage from pro-regime forces, the Americans came under small arms fire from individuals in the vicinity of the checkpoint and returned fire in self-defense, Operation Inherent Resolve spokespeople said at the time.
A roughly 10-minute gunfight reportedly erupted, leading to the killing of one Syrian fighter and the wounding of two others. There were no U.S. casualties. A portion of the gunfight was caught on video, though it does not show how it began.
After the shootout, the charge sheets claimed Nicoson ordered two soldiers to delete video recordings of the unit’s actions at the checkpoint in an attempt to cover up any potential wrongdoing.
The Army CID investigation did not start until a couple months after the August 2020 incident, the preliminary hearing officer wrote in his report, adding that the “witnesses seem to have inherent bias and prejudice as a result of what they were told after the fact.”
In total, Nicoson was charged with two counts of failure to obey an order; two counts of reckless endangerment; one count of communicating threats; and three counts of obstructing justice, the Army Times concluded.