Anti-IS strike rules unchanged under Trump — US general

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The rules of engagement governing US-led strikes against the Islamic State group have not been changed under US President Donald Trump’s administration, a top military commander says on Thursday.

After taking office in January, Trump ordered the development of a “new plan” to defeat IS, and called for recommendations on changing rules of engagement and “policy restrictions” that go beyond the requirements of international law.

“We still have the same rules of engagement; those authorities were delegated before any change in administration,” Brigadier General Rick Uribe, a senior commander in the US-led coalition against IS, tells journalists in Baghdad.

“We have not changed our procedures due to a change in… administration,” says Uribe, who emphasizes that the coalition carefully reviews potential targets in order to avoid civilian casualties.

Despite Trump’s vows to increase the pace of action against IS and his assertion that he supports killing the families of militants, current efforts against the jihadists largely mirror those in place under his predecessor Barack Obama.

Coalition strikes have come in for criticism in recent weeks after Iraqi officials said that scores of civilians were killed in west Mosul.

The coalition is now investigating a March 17 strike it said it carried out in an area where civilian casualties were reported, and Belgium — a member of the coalition — is also probing whether its warplanes were involved in civilian deaths.

— AFP