MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — The Pentagon says U.S.-led coalition airstrikes have killed a total of 603 civilians since the air campaign against the Islamic State group was launched in 2014.
The report released on Friday says coalition strikes between April 19 and May 23 that were assessed during the month of May killed 119 civilians.
The report says nearly half of all those civilian deaths occurred in or near Mosul, but did not further specify locations. The coalition defines a credible casualty assessment as one that “more likely than not” resulted in civilian deaths.
The report added that in each case “all feasible precautions were taken and the decision to strike complied with the law of armed conflict.”
Allegations of civilian casualties have spiked in Iraq and Syria in recent months as military operations against IS in Iraq’s Mosul and also Syria have accelerated.
I would say not. When as anyone ever released accurate civilian casualty assessments?
As bad as the real figure is, it pales in comparison with the body count the Saudis are racking up in Yemen (with our blessing).
I’m sorry for those people, but at least they died in a good cause…the elimination of radical Islam.
Why is there never any estimate regarding the number of IS troops or terrorists killed when they print this?
Some context would be nice.
I mean, if we killed 119 civilians in a little over a month, and we only killed 100 IS troops, that would seem pretty unconscionable. But if we killed thousands of IS, knocked out munitions, gained back territory, etc; that is more in line with acceptable collateral damage.
I agree. I would also like to know the number of ISIS fighters and their supporters that were killed in relation to these civilian deaths to put it in some context. It is always regrettable that civilians die in these conflicts but it would be helpful to know if this fight we’ve chosen to engage in is worth it or just a lot of really bad intelligence guiding us in the fight using our military and its support.