Saturday, April 1, 2017

Pentagon: U.S-Led Coalition Strikes Against The Islamic State has Killed 229 Civilians

Smoke rises after an air strike, while Iraqi forces battle with ISIS militants, in western Mosul, Iraq, March 10. The U.S.-led coalition announced Friday it had killed an ISIS propaganda team in a strike in western Iraq. REUTERS/ZOHRA BENSEMRA

New York Times: U.S.-Led Coalition Counts 229 Civilian Deaths Before Mosul Strike

WASHINGTON — Facing mounting pressure over civilian casualties in American airstrikes, the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria said on Saturday that it was likely that at least 229 civilians had been unintentionally killed by its operations since they began in August 2014.

In February, the last month covered by the report and the first full month of the Trump administration, four such civilians were killed, the coalition said. The assessment, issued monthly, therefore does not include the March 17 strike against a building in Mosul in which scores if not hundreds of civilians were killed, according to Iraqi witnesses. That strike is under investigation.

The coalition’s overall count is far less than estimates by some human rights groups. Airwars, a nongovernment organization that monitors reports of civilian casualties in international airstrikes, has asserted that at least 2,831 civilians are likely to have been killed as of March 28 by the coalition’s air attacks since August 2014.

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Update #1: U.S-led Coalition strikes against ISIS have killed 229 civilians: Pentagon report -- ABC News
Update #2: US-led strikes 'likely' caused 229 civilian deaths since 2014: Pentagon -- AFP

WNU editor: These numbers were compiled before the March 17 strike against a building in Mosul in which scores if not hundreds of civilians were killed. As to the numbers published .... I have trouble believing this .... U.S.-led fight against ISIS killed four civilians in February: Pentagon (Reuters).

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