Three of the U.S. military’s top officials have told Congress they realized within hours that a botched Aug. 29 drone strike killed innocent civilians—contradicting earlier military statements about what government knew in the aftermath of the incident. “We knew the strike hit civilians within 4-5 hours after the strike occurred, and U.S. Central Command issued a press release saying that,” CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie told members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on Sept. 29, responding to questions from Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.). Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also said the Pentagon knew about civilian deaths within “several hours” of the strike, as did Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, the latter part of McKenzie’s statement is false. CENTCOM press releases following the drone strike do not, in fact, admit to civilian deaths. The first Aug. 29 press release said CENTCOM was …