'Hundreds of civilians killed' in airstrikes on 'Islamic State'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.com/en/hundreds-of-civilians-killed-in-airstrikes-on-islamic-state/a-18624722

An independent monitoring group has said that hundreds of civilians have likely been killed in a US-led air campaign against "Islamic State" militants. The US-led coalition had no immediate comment on the report.

'Hundreds of civilians killed' in airstrikes on 'Islamic State'
03.08.2015

The group, Airwars, which describes itself as a "not-for-profit transparency project" said in a report posted on its website on Monday that it had evidence to suggest that between 459 and 591 civilians had been killed in the US-led air campaign since it was launched one year ago.

The report, entitled "Cause for Concern," said that these had come in 57 incidents, in which it believed there was enough evidence on the public record to indicate coalition responsibility for their deaths. It added that 48-80 members of "friendly forces" had also been killed.

The report noted that the fact that the United States has so far only conceded that two non-combatants had likely been killed in the air campaign "indicates a worrying lack of urgency on the part of all Coalition members regarding civilian deaths."

"Almost all claims of non-combatant deaths from alleged Coalition strikes emerge within 24 hours –with graphic images of reported victims often widely disseminated across media and social media. In this context, the present Coalition policy of downplaying or denying all claims of non-combatant fatalities makes little sense and risks handing Islamic State and other forces a powerful propaganda tool," the report concluded.

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http://airwars.org/