But
the Russians are war criminals, aren’t they? This doesn't even include Iraq.
US
On Track To Kill More Syrian Civilians Than Russia For 5th Straight
Month
25
May, 2017
Coalition-led
airstrikes in Syria killed a total of 225 civilians between April 23
and May 23, the highest 30-day death toll for U.S.-led forces since
the campaign began, Agence
France-Presse reported. That's
nearly double the number of intended targets: The U.S.-led strikes
killed 122
ISIS fighters and eight fighters loyal to the Syrian government, the
report said.
The
rising tide of civilian deaths attributable to coalition forces
suggest that May could be the fifth straight month that civilian
deaths from coalition-led strikes outpace the civilian death toll
from Russian forces, according to the AFP report and an
analysis of data from Airwars.org.
Of
the 225 civilian deaths, reported to AFP by the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, 44
were children and 36 were women.
The
civilian death toll from Russian strikes has declined since it peaked
in January. Meanwhile, deaths from U.S.-led strikes have risen
dramatically.
“There has been a very big escalation,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The
previous deadliest 30-day period for U.S.-led forces was between
February 23 and March 23 this year, when 220 civilians were killed,
Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The
past month's deaths brought
the overall civilian toll from the coalition campaign to 1,481, among
them 319 children, AFP reported.
The
coalition launched operations against ISIS in Iraq in August 2014,
then expanded them to Syria the following month. The Russian
intervention began a year later.
However,
the rising tide of casualties relative to intended targets could soon
shift as the US Military implements a new strategy ordered by
President Trump that's designed to annihilate ISIS in Syria in an
effort to prevent foreign fighters from returning home. Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump's order for the military to change up
its plans for dealing with ISIS has led to a“tactical
shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight
to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate
ISIS.”
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