The United States military has found enough credible information to begin a formal investigation into allegations that USA -led coalition air strikes killed civilians on July 19 in Syria, a spokesman for the coalition fighting Islamic State, Colonel Chris Garver, said on Wednesday. The U.S.is backing with weapons and airstrikes a coalition of local militias that are seeking to retake Manbij the area from the extremist organization.
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“We can confirm the coalition conducted airstrikes in the areas in the last 24 hours”, said the USA central command late on Thursday, adding that the strikes “may have resulted in civilian casualties”.
Chris Woods is an investigative journalist who leads Airwars, a group of researchers and reporters based in the middle east and Europe who focus on civilian casualties from global airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, US airstrikes against al-Ghandour in northern Syria have killed at least 28 civilians, including seven children.
The anti-Islamic State coalition was conducting a “credibility assessment” after its own internal reporting indicated civilians might have been killed in the strike near Manbij, where a battle has continued for weeks between U.S-back Syrian Democratic Forces and the terrorist group, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon’s press secretary.
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Central Command said the strikes complied with laws of armed conflict and expressed regret for the unintentional loss of life and injury.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says coalition aircraft struck the village of Al-Ghandour on Thursday night. Airwars estimates that civilians deaths in Syria are under-reported by as much as 95 percent by the U.S.
In another strike on April 26 near Qayyarah in Iraq, one civilian died when a motorcycle “unexpectedly appeared in the target area after the USA aircraft had already released its weapon”, Centcom said.
A massive bomb blast claimed by the militant Islamic State group killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens in the Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Qamishli.
The US-backed SDF, which includes a Kurdish armed group and Arab allies, launched its campaign to take Manbij, and drive ISIL from the Syrian-Turkish frontier, almost two months ago with the backing of US special forces.
The airstrikes were part of USA -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).
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The US military has launched a formal investigation into the bombing, but has not said how many deaths it is investigating, reports the Guardian.
