US Confirms Killing 61 More Civilians in Iraq, Syria

Local Editor

The US-led coalition participating in fighting Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri terrorists ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] confirmed another 61 "unintentional civilian deaths" caused by its strikes in Iraq and Syria, raising the number of civilians it has acknowledged killing since 2014 to at least 685.

The coalition released a statement on Friday saying that during the month of July, it had investigated 37 reports of civilian casualties. "[of these] 13 were accessed to be credible resulting in 61 unintentional civilian deaths."

The coalition is currently investigating a total of 455 reports of civilian casualties caused by its artillery or air strikes, the statement added.

It has acknowledged at least 685 civilian deaths caused by its operations since August 2014.

"To date, based on information available, CJTF-OIR [Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve] assesses that, it is more likely than not, at least 685 civilians have been unintentionally killed by Coalition strikes since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve," the statement read, noting that the coalition takes all reports of civilian casualties "seriously and assesses all reports as thoroughly as possible."

The deadliest incident was a March 14 strike near Mosul, in which the coalition attacked a Daesh position where fighters were firing at coalition allies.

From August 2014 to July 2017, the Coalition conducted a total of 24,160 strikes.

"During this period, the total number of reports of possible civilian casualties was 1169." The total number of credible reports of civilian casualties during this time period was 164, it said.

Civilians are paying an "unacceptable" price in the siege of the city of Raqqa, a top UN human rights official stressed on Thursday, adding that the US-led coalition may not be respecting the principles of international humanitarian law in its "intense" airstrikes.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team