The US military is reportedly to acknowledge responsibility for civilian casualties in a total of 14 new cases in Iraq and Syria which left at least 15 dead and 14 injured. Until last week, the US had accepted responsibility in just two such cases.
For months the Pentagon was reluctant to admit causing civilian casualties during its bombing campaign against the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). Now, in a span of three weeks, it is to announce 14 new cases from 2015 that killed or injured a total of 29 innocent people, The Daily Beast reported.
Last week the military detailed five incidents between April 12 and July 4, 2015, that had claimed eight lives and left three others injured. This week the Pentagon is to acknowledge five more incidents, and next week four additional cases will be announced, the news website said.
The desire to avoid civilian casualties was cited by the US as the reason why it for so long avoided targeting the terrorist group’s revenue-generating facilities, such as the convoys of stolen oil that IS smuggles out of Syria and Iraq.
Investigating suspected civilian casualties from airstrikes in Iraq and Syria may be difficult or even impossible, as often neither the Pentagon's own investigator nor independent observers can safely assess the aftermath of American attacks from the ground.
The US military have conducted over 7,500 airstrikes over the course of the anti-IS campaign, which started in August 2014.