US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced on Wednesday that the Pentagon would investigate claims by human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, and the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces — that American airstrikes have killed over 100 civilians since June.
“The bombing of al-Tukhar may have resulted in the largest loss of civilian life by coalition operations in Syria. There must be a prompt, independent and transparent investigation to determine what happened, who was responsible, and how to avoid further needless loss of civilian life. Anyone responsible for violations of international humanitarian law must be brought to justice and victims and their families should receive full reparation,” said Magdalena Mughrabi of Amnesty International, as reported by CNN.
The airstrikes Mughrabi referred to were conducted around the ISIS-controlled city of Manbij, which is the last major ISIS holding along Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
The Intercept, whose coverage is often anti-U.S. involvement abroad, describes the civilian death toll as “potentially the highest ever to result from a coalition bombing in the international campaign against ISIS,” including the destruction of a convoy that was mistaken for ISIS fighters, when it was actually civilians trying to escape from Manbij. There are reportedly 70,000 civilians trapped in the city.
Chris Woods of the monitoring group Airwars viewed these reports as particularly troubling because the United States and its coalition partners have generally taken great pains to avoid civilian casualties, unlike the Russians and Assad terrorists .
Defense Secretary Carter vowed to “continue to do all we can to protect civilians from harm.”
At least fifty civilians lost their lives on Tuesday after the U.S.-led coalition’s jets attacked the city of Jarablas near Manbij in Aleppo eastern countryside. Also, no less than 70 civilians were killed in similar U.S.-led coalition’s attacks on the city of Manbij in Aleppo eastern countryside.
