All three groups are battling to retake Sinjar.
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The organization “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” was formed by the merger of two branches of “Al-Qaeda” in 2013 which aimed to establish an Islamic caliphate on the territories of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The fourth finished investigation revealed evidence of the two deaths in Syria nine months ago.
Addressing this information gap, the monitoring group I head up, Airwars, has examined all known claims of civilian deaths during the past year.
Sahr Muhamadally, from the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said: “All allegations of civilian harm, including from open sources, should be investigated by the coalition and processes should be in place to acknowledge and assist those harmed”. Every two weeks or so the MoD tells us where its Tornados have dropped bombs in Iraq. As early as the first bombing run in Syria, rebels battling Syrian government forces complained that U.S. cruise missiles had killed civilians who were asleep in an apartment building in northwest Syria.
In one of the deadliest incidents, an worldwide air strike appears to have killed more than 50 civilians as they cowered in an Isil-run prison.
“The coalition confirms that it carried out the strike at Hawijah, although a senior commander later insisted that exclusively a “pretty small weapon” had been used within the assault – and that any duty for civilian deaths ‘rests squarely on Daesh [ISIS],'” Airwars stated, within the report. One witness, an activist in Al Bab, gave the death toll as 61 civilian prisoners and 13 Islamic State guards.’ The use of al-Saraya as a holding facility for locals had been widely reported long before the US airstrike.
The coalition conducting airstrikes in Syria include the US, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. According to him, over 3 thousand air flights were conducted against the IS.
The report notes some successes by the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS.
In this photo taken Monday, June 23, 2014, fighters from the Islamic State group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul, Iraq.
Airwars acknowledged that the United States and its allies try harder to spare civilians than do the Islamic State or other militant groups.
As Britain’s MPs prepare to vote this autumn on expanding UK air strikes from Iraq to Syria, Labour MP Tom Watson called for thorough official investigations into claims of civilian deaths to allow an “informed debate” about the campaign. Until now, the US military has not commented on civilian deaths or friendly fire incidents, a policy the group says “makes little sense and risks handing ISIS a powerful propaganda tool” because civilian casualties are made public by ISIS within a day of the incidents “with graphic images of the victims”.
Four investigations into alleged civilian casualties have been completed by US Central Command.
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But the Airwars group disputes that claim.
