Pentagon admits 64 civilians killed in U.S. airstrikes in Syria, Iraq

Pentagon admits 64 civilians killed in U.S. airstrikes in Syria, Iraq

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. military has released its assessment of civilian casualties in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 months. Official data suggest 64 people were killed and eight more injured in 24 separate strikes since November 2015, RT reports.

“In each of the cases released today, the assessment determined that although all feasible precautions were taken and strikes complied with laws of armed conflict, civilian casualties unfortunately did occur,” Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.

Mitigating civilian casualties remains a “key component” of the anti-IS (Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL) air campaign in Syria and Iraq, the military emphasized, acknowledging a handful of deadly strikes which were blamed on the US-led coalition.

For instance, according to a statement made on November 20 last year, five civilians were killed near Dayr Az Zawr, eastern Syria, when they happened to be in the target area of a US air strike. A further 10 civilians were killed in a strike on March 5, near Mosul, northern Iraq, when the US-led coalition targeted a terrorist “weapons production facility,” the statement added.

“We’ve applied lessons learned to reduce the likelihood of future civilian casualties,” Thomas said, according to RT.

The latest information does not include an investigation into a coalition air strike in mid-July near Manbij, in Syria's Aleppo Governorate, which according to some reports killed dozens of civilians. The military said that investigation is nearing completion.

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