The updated toll comes after the coalition announced Wednesday a formal investigation to determine whether its July 19 air strikes near Manbij in Syria claimed civilian lives.
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On Thursday night, US Central Command (CENTCOM) acknowledged that the airstrikes “may have resulted in civilian casualties”, but did not name a figure, pending a likely future investigation.
Four more civilians died in Mosul on April 29 during strikes targeting the Australian Neil Prakash – considered to be an influential IS group recruiter – who also died in the bombardment.
“This is a complicated situation, and we will continue to apply the rigor that we always do in terms of minimizing the risk to civilians, but we are supporting (SDF) forces because this is a critical moment in this campaign”, Cook said.
Manbij has strategic value for another reason: it provides a pathway for Isis to exfiltrate fighters through Turkey to the outside world.
The airstrikes were part of US -led coalition efforts to support local Syrian fighters on the ground who are fighting to retake Manbij from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Garver said the intelligence has not yielded links to any of those involved in recent violent attacks in the West.
On Wednesday, Carter said the USA -led coalition would look for opportunities to attack Islamic State from the south in Syria, potentially expanding US -led efforts that recently have focused on northern Syria.
Some media outlets from the region wrote last week that more than 160 civilians were killed in the airstrikes.
According to Washington, its bombs have caused 55 civilian deaths since the coalition air strikes were launched two years ago.
Arab and Turkmen civilians that fled Manbij told ARA News on Tuesday that they had no issues with the coalition airstrikes, but that the mines and ISIS sniper fire are making it more hard for them to escape the city.
“We can confirm the Coalition conducted airstrikes in the area in the last 24 hours”.
The main Syrian opposition group had urged the US-led coalition to suspend its bombardments.
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The U.S. -backed fighters – an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces – have gathered more than 4 terabytes of digital information, and the material, most of it in Arabic, is now being analyzed by the U.S-led coalition fighting the militant group.
