Alexa Liautaud / VICE News & Airwars – 2017-06-25 02:12:48
https://news.vice.com/story/us-led-airstrikes-killed-472-civilians-in-syria-in-past-month-monitor-says
US-led Airstrikes Killed 472 Civilians
In Syria in Past Month, Monitor Says
Alexa Liautaud / VICE News
(June 23, 2017) – More civilians have been killed by the US-led coalition in Syria in the past four weeks than in any other month since operations began in 2014, the UK-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday.
The coalition has pursued an increasingly aggressive air campaign in 2017 in its fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Most recently, the coalition has focused a great deal of firepower on the heavily contested Syrian governorates and cities of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor.
According to both the UN and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, that firepower has devastated civilians. Between May 23 and June 23, the monitor says an astounding 472 civilians were killed in airstrikes in the two governorates. Of those, 137 were reportedly children.
The independent monitor says it was the single highest 30-day civilian death toll involving coalition strikes since the US-led operation began in 2014. The record had previously been set just the month before at 225.
In an emailed statement to AFP, the coalition said its troops “work diligently and deliberately to be precise†in their air strikes.
“Our goal is always for zero civilian casualties,†the statement said.
Ninety-seven percent of coalition strikes in Syria are carried out by US aircraft, according to Airwars, an independent monitoring group that compiles airstrike data.
The aerial bombardment has now claimed nearly 2,000 civilian lives, more than a fifth of which have been children, according to Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A U.N. investigation that came to light last week found that more than 300 civilians had been killed in the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State, since March.
Now in its seventh year, the brutal Syrian civil war has resulted in the deaths of more than 470,000 people, according to the Syrian Center for Policy Research. Millions more of have displaced, resulting in a refugee crisis that continues to destabilize the region and the world.
Monitoring the Human Impact of the
Air Wars in Iraq and Syria
Airwars
At Airwars we’ve been modeling Coalition airstrike data since the start of operations in August 2014, enabling us to comprehensively model over time the war against Daesh. All of our graphs and tables are based on official data releases from the Coalition, and from individual member nations.
Number of strikes per month, in Iraq and Syria
The term airstrike is imprecise. According to AFCENT, an average of 3.65 weapons were released by allied airstrike to October 2015, with allies admitting that multiple targets, aircraft actions and even locations might be labelled under any one ‘strike’ report.
[See interactive graph online.]
Coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria:
Alleged civilian deaths and levels of reporting
The chart shows all claimed civilian deaths from alleged Coalition airstrikes across both Iraq and Syria since August 2014, by category. Each event is individually reported in Civilian Casualties.
[See interactive graph online.]
Coalition v Russia: Alleged civilian casualty events
Airwars has tracked more than 2,000 reported events in which Ru ssian or Coalition aircraft have allegedly killed civilians. While these raw claims should be treated with caution, they may be help us to understand tr ends over time. In March to May 2016 for example, alleged Russian incidents fell by 75% – most likely a result of the Syria ceasefire then in place.
[See interactive graph online.]
Number of weapon releases in Iraq/Syria
The US, France, Canada and UK prefer to report the number of strikes their aircraft carry out. In contrast the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia all report the number of weapons released. Overall weapons data is issued by AFCENT monthly.
[See interactive graph online.]
Number of airstrikes by US and Allies
CJTF-OIR intermittently issues overall figures for US and for allied strikes, for both Iraq and Syria.
[See interactive graph online.]
Estimated number of airstrikes in Iraq
The chart on the left shows US and allied strikes in Iraq, while the right-hand chart gives a breakdown of allied-only strikes. All data is drawn from official military reports of CJTF-OIR, France, UK, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia and Canada. Where countries only issue data on weapons released, we estimate the number of strikes based on the overall average of weapons released per strike.
[See interactive graph online.]
Cumulative US and allied airstrikes in Syria
By tracking occasional updates from CJTF-OIR we are able to build a picture of ongoing US and allied air operations in Syria.
[See interactive graph online.]
Cumulative US and allied airstrikes in Iraq
By tracking occasional updates from CJTF-OIR we are able to build a picture of ongoing Western allied and Jordan air operations in Iraq.
[See interactive graph online.]
Airstrikes in Iraq from 2006 to 2016
Based on historical CENTCOM data and current reporting by CJTF-OIR, we can show airstrikes in Iraq dating back to 2006. The present air war represents the most intense aerial bombing of Iraq since the invasion of 2003.
[See interactive graph online.]
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
