U.S.-Led Attacks on IS Have Likely Killed Hundreds of Civilians

EghtesadOnline: At least 603 civilians have been “more likely than not” unintentionally killed during U.S.-led coalition strikes on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since the campaign began three years ago, the U.S. Central Command said on Friday.

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08 July 2017

The death toll was calculated after an assessment by the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve, the name of the military campaign, it said in a statement. To date, based on data between August 2014 and May 2017, the coalition conducted a total of 21,910 strikes. There were 727 reports of possible civilian casualties and 145 credible reports of civilian casualties during the period, it said.

After Islamic State seized a swath of Iraq and Syria in June 2014, the U.S. put together a coalition of about 60 nations to fight the group, a campaign mostly of airstrikes coupled with efforts to strengthen local forces, Bloomberg reported.

The coalition is backing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which are leading the fight against the militant group in Raqqa, Islamic State’s self-declared capital, and Iraqi forces and allied militias who have expelled the fighters from most of the city of Mosul.