Air strikes kill 400 civilians

04 August 2015 - 10:29 By ©The Daily Telegraph

International coalition air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are believed to have killed more than 400 civilians, according to a new report. For a year the US-led air campaign has tried to halt the spread of Islamist militancy in the two countries, targeting thousands of positions linked to Islamic State and the Khorasan group, a smaller group affiliated to al-Qaeda that officials say is plotting attacks in Europe and the US.The air strikes have claimed the lives of at least 459 civilians to date. In a report released yesterday , Airwars, a research project tracking the international fight against IS, 57 incidents are listed in which there is publicly available evidence to suggest that coalition bombs killed noncombatants without links to the extremists.In one of the deadliest incidents, an international air strike appears to have killed more than 50 civilians as they cowered in an IS-run prison."The international coalition has boasted that its air war against Islamic State is 'the most precise and disciplined in the history of aerial warfare'. Yet facts from the ground suggest a different story," said Chris Woods, Airwars director.The coalition has admitted only to causing two civilian deaths in the campaign. Woods warned that minimising casualty figures risks handing IS "a powerful propaganda tool".In its year-long sweep across Iraq and Syria, IS has presented itself as a defender of Sunni communities against sectarian governments and militias. It now rules as many as 8million people, consolidating its power through spectacular violence and brutally enforced Islamic law.On December 28, dozens of civilians were reportedly killed by a coalition air strike as IS punished them for breaking bans on "unIslamic" practices such as smoking or playing music.Airwars said 58 noncombatants were killed in the blast at an IS-run makeshift prison in the north Syrian town of al-Bab. Though the US military eventually admitted that the facility had been hit, it has not been drawn on the possibility that dozens of civilians were killed within its confines.The international air war has hit nearly 8000 IS targets and killed about 12,500 of the group's fighters.But now there are growing calls for greater transparency and accountability...

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