The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq acknowledges the deaths of 16 more civilians in airstrikes, increasing the toll of civilians killed in three years to at least 817.
The coalition says in a statement that it had completed a review in November of 101 reports of potential civilian casualties, of which 92 were deemed noncredible.
The remaining nine, relating to strikes between March 20 and October 17, were considered credible and resulted in 11 civilian casualties.
Smokes billows on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border as Turkey’s military and US-backed coalition forces launched an operation to clear a Syrian border town from Islamic State, August 24, 2016. Photo DHA via AP
The coalition also adds another five civilian casualties to its count, based on previous reports of attacks it had earlier said it was not responsible for.
“To date, based on the information available, (the coalition) assesses at least 817 civilians have been unintentionally killed by Coalition strikes” since the beginning of the campaign against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in August 2014, the statement says.
— AFP
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