On July 19, a United States air strike in Syria killed 73 civilians, a majority of which were women and children. The strikes occurred in Manbij, where the US has engaged in an aggressive fight to push out ISIS. Said Adnan al-Housen, an activist from Manbij:
“The death toll is 117. We could document [the identity of] 73 civilians, including 35 children and 20 women. The rest of the dead bodies are charred, or have been reduced to shreds.”
Reportedly, around 50 injured survivors were rushed for treatment to the border town of Jarablus, where they provided details about the attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) states that the U.S. airstrikes have killed 104 civilians since the 31st of May, 29 of which were children. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have been acting with U.S. airstrikes to remove the Islamic State from Manbij. The U.S. has has carried out more than 450 air strikes since May.
The US military Command Center claims that three drone strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 9 ISIL fighter positions, a command and control node, and 12 ISIL vehicles. News sources, such as Al Jazeera and The Washington Post, say that Central Command has confirmed that they are investigating whether or not the drone strikes were from the U.S. military.
Col. Christopher Garver, the leading spokesman for the U.S.-led war in Syria has confirmed that the U.S. is “looking into it now” as a step to determine whether to open a formal investigation.
“We are aware of reports alleging civilian casualties in the area,”
a statement from the U.S. war command stated today. The colonel mentioned that Daesh (ISIS/Islamic State) have been using more civilians as human shields.
“We’ve seen them during the fight pushing civilians toward the lines of the SDF to try to draw fire. While the investigative process will provide details on this particular incident, and we don’t know what happened, I won’t be surprised if this is somehow a factor,” he stated.
CASUALTIES RISING
The U.S. military has only confirmed 36 civilian deaths since 2015, which contradict all other reports on the ground.
Airwars has released a report that involved investigative reporting on-site in Syria and Iraq to determine the true civilian death toll since 2015. The study found that the death toll was more likely upwards of 1,000 casualties, not 36.
The U.S. Central Command is currently investigating any other claims of civilian casualties.
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