Share

Monitors: US-led coalition killed 1,600 civilians in Raqqa

Share

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition killed more than 1,600 civilians in the northern Syria city of Raqqa during months of bombardment that liberated it from the Islamic State group, hundreds more than the number the U.S.-led coalition claims over the entire four-year campaign against IS, Amnesty International and a London-based watchdog group said Thursday.

Amnesty and Airwars said the toll came after the “most comprehensive investigation into civilian deaths in a modern conflict.”

The U.S.-led coalition said last month that 1,257 civilians were killed in airstrikes against IS over four years in Syria and Iraq.

“We continue to employ thorough and deliberate targeting and strike processes to minimize the impact of our operations on civilian populations and infrastructure,” the coalition said.

Raqqa was the de facto capital of IS’s self-declared caliphate, which once encompassed a third of Syria and Iraq. Last month, IS lost the last area it controlled in eastern Syria marking the end of the so-called caliphate.

Trending:
Federal Judge Has Bad News for Hunter Biden, Says There's Zero Evidence His Charges Are Politically Motivated

U.S.-backed Syrian fighters captured Raqqa in October 2017 after a four-month campaign.

The U.N estimates that more than 10,000 buildings were destroyed or 80 percent of the city.

“Coalition forces razed Raqqa, but they cannot erase the truth. Amnesty International and Airwars call upon the Coalition forces to end their denial about the shocking scale of civilian deaths and destruction caused by their offensive in Raqqa,” the two groups said in a joint statement.

In June last year, an Amnesty International report said hundreds of civilians were killed in Raqqa, while the Airwars said it has evidence of 1,400 fatalities.

The statement said Amnesty International’s innovative “Strike Trackers” project also identified when each of the more than 11,000 destroyed buildings in Raqqa was hit. More than 3,000 digital activists in 124 countries took part, analyzing a total of more than 2 million satellite image frames, it said.

“The Coalition needs to fully investigate what went wrong at Raqqa and learn from those lessons, to prevent inflicting such tremendous suffering on civilians caught in future military operations,” said Chris Woods, Director of Airwars.

Separately, Syrian Minister of Transportation Ali Hammoud said his country will sign a contract with a Russian company to run and expand the port of Tartous on the Mediterranean.

Hammoud said in remarks published by the pro-government Al-Watan daily Thursday that Russia’s Stroytransgaz will run the port for 49 years. The minister added that a Russian company would expand the port and pump more than $500 million in this project, pointing that it has been agreed with the company to keep all Syrian workers in the port.

Russia has been a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and Moscow tipped the balance of power in favor of government forces after joining Syria’s war in 2015.

Related:
Former MSNBC Host Chuck Todd Furious After Network Hires Former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov met with Assad in Damascus over the weekend and said in comments carried by Russian news agencies that he was expecting the contract to be signed this week.

Borisov said the Russian lease of the port would boost bilateral trade and benefit the Syrian economy.

Stroytransgaz is controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s childhood friend Gennady Timchenko. The Tartous port would be an important asset for the company which landed a contract for 30 percent of the output in a major phosphate field outside Palmyra last year and signed a deal with a government-owned chemical company to rebuild Syria’s only fertilizer plant in the central province of Homs.

Unlike many major Russian companies, private or state-owned, Stroytransgaz is not wary of international sanctions against the Syrian government since Timchenko himself and his businesses including Stroytransgaz were slapped with U.S. sanctions in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
Share
The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City. Their teams in over 100 countries tell the world’s stories, from breaking news to investigative reporting. They provide content and services to help engage audiences worldwide, working with companies of all types, from broadcasters to brands. Photo credit: @AP on Twitter
The Associated Press was the first private sector organization in the U.S. to operate on a national scale. Over the past 170 years, they have been first to inform the world of many of history's most important moments, from the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the fall of the Shah of Iran and the death of Pope John Paul.

Today, they operate in 263 locations in more than 100 countries relaying breaking news, covering war and conflict and producing enterprise reports that tell the world's stories.
Location
New York City




Conversation