How Many Civilians Have Died In The West's Air Campaign Against The Islamic State?

Richard Hall, The Week/Global Post: Just how many civilians have died in the West's campaign against ISIS?

The United States is fighting another war in the Middle East. Thousands of soldiers are on the ground, planes are in the air, and shiploads of weapons are being sent to local allies.

The U.S.-led coalition of 21 countries — formed in August to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State, in the words of U.S. President Barack Obama — has so far carried out some 3,200 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. Those strikes have also targeted Jabhat al-Nusra, Al Qaeda's official branch in Syria.

The Obama administration has authorized more than 3,000 American military personnel to train and advise Iraq's security forces as they try to recapture territory from the militant group. Hundreds more soldiers from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, among others, are at work in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, training the Kurdish fighters known as the peshmerga.

WNU Editor: No one knows the exact number .... but everyone does know that when the battle for the city of Mosul begins, civilian casualties are going to be sky-high.