The Coalition kills hundreds of civilians in recent days in both Syria and Iraq
US confirms that killed more than 100 civilians in a bombing in Mosul
The spectrum of one of the euphemisms for military most controversial of the last few decades has re-emerged in Syria in such a tragic way. The number of ‘collateral damage’, that is, civilians killed in Coalition bombing during their campaign against the self-styled Islamic State, has soared in the past two months in the country. The reason seems to be the final phase of the military campaign western to finish off the last stronghold of the country controlled by the extremists, in the east.
Two different organizations, Airwars and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, have quantified the disaster. According to the first, last October, “the number of civilian deaths rose, with at least 98 non-combatant civilians probably killed in actions of the Coalition during the month.” A month, he adds, “saw triple the number of incidents of importance that involved military action, americans, French, british, and Dutch”.
For its part, the Observatory, which reports from a network of activists on the ground, has indicated that, in the following month, 206 people, including 77 children and 59 women were killed in air strikes of the International Coalition”. According to the data of this entity, the force led by the U.S. to eradicate the Islamic State (known by the acronym in English is) was gained in November more innocent lives that forces loyal to the syrian Government (23) and that the same IS (7).
Increased air strikes
Airwars, a project linked to the University of London, points out that “this alarming spike in harm to civilians coincides with an increase of 125% from aerial attacks and artillery shelling in Syria”. The reason, he explains, is “the increased efforts of the U.S. and its european allies” to eradicate the IS. The Coalition supports mostly an alliance of multi-ethnic based in the northern syrian. The Coalition hit 481 times in October, a number not seen since the final battle for the syrian city of Raqqa a year ago.
Although small, the ultimate goal is to be a hard nut to crack. After losing Raqqa, Deir Ezzor and the vast majority of territories that dominated three years ago, the followers of the ‘caliph’ Abu Bakr Baghdadi -whereabouts unknown – entrenched themselves in the valley of the Euphrates. His latest feud is just 30 Km in length and runs between the river and the iraqi border, surrounded by forces backed by the West. Its largest town is Hayin, with 40 thousand inhabitants before the war.
The progress of the allies have been slow and have met with some obstacles: the Turkish threat to penetrate on the territory kurdosirio, which led to a demobilisation of troops around Hayin the past month, sand storms, which forced the withdrawal of militiamen pro-USA and added to the bombing, and the resilience of the hosts IS that, in spite of their situation of weakness have shown a high capacity to inflict damage on the enemy.
More than a thousand civilians dead from 2014
The answer Coalition, judging by the figures, is to be similarly lethal, and also with the civilians. And even though their so-called ‘collateral damage’ have passed generally quietly through the pages of the western press, unlike the scandals that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, its leaders recognized periodically its rampage, although with discretion. The numbers of dead civilians that manages the Coalition are lower than those offered by other agencies.
At the end of last September, in a statement, the Coalition anti-IS recognized 1,114 colors civilians “killed unintentionally” since the start of its incursions in Syria and Iraq, in 2014. In the same text he added that, after receiving “credible reports”, among them that of Airwars, added 53 victims to their counts initial, significantly lower than the registered. All in all, the Coalition has blamed other forces to conduct bombing raids in Hayin, with no coordination with it.
An example reported by Human Rights Watch of the reluctance of the Coalition to recognize their victims is the school of Mansurah, near Raqqa. After months of denial, a second Estimate of Collateral Damage done by the allies, on the basis of information provided by HRW concluded that at least forty civilians, including children, had been killed in a Coalition bombing, against what they defined as a “multifunctional center of the Islamic State”.
“The US-led Coalition should take responsibility when their attacks kill civilians. In case of violations, international law requires compensation for civilian victims,” explains Nadim Houry, director of the Program on Terrorism and Counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. Organizations pro Human Rights have urged the countries involved in the war against the IS to minimize all possible types of attack that could put at risk innocent lives. The dripping does not cease.
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