A U.S. F-15E assault jet sped through the drone's high-definition field of view and unleashed a 500-pound bomb on the throng without warning. Then a plane dropped two 2,000-pound bombs, one after the other.
The New York Times pieced together the facts of the strikes over months using confidential papers, summaries of classified reports, and conversations with people directly engaged and officials with top-secret security clearances who spoke about the operation on the condition of anonymity.
