US hasn't done enough to ‘limit’ civilian deaths in Syria, Iraq: Report

A report by a US government-funded organization warns that the country should take action to “limit” the civilian death toll from its overseas operations, citing grim figures from Washington’s 2014-present military operations in Iraq and Syria.

The report was released recently by the RAND Corporation global policy think tank.

“The [US] Air Force will need to limit civilian casualties and collateral damage,” said nearly a dozen authors that penned the 511-page report.

They cited figures from Airwars, a British organization that tracks civilian death tolls from military conflicts, concerning the so-called Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR).

The operation saw the US and scores of its allies rolling into the Arab countries -- without government permission in the case of Syria -- to supposedly battle the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh.

In November last year, Airwars listed more than 13,000 civilian deaths from the US-led operations.

Over 13,000 civilians killed in US attacks in Iraq, Syria since 2014: Airwars

US military attacks in Iraq and Syria have killed an estimated number of 8,310 to 13,187 civilians since 2014, says a watchdog group.

Citing figures compiled by Airwars, RAND pointed to the bloodiest months for civilians during the course of the US-led wars in Iraq and Syria.

“In Iraq, the reported number of civilian deaths peaked in March 2017, with more than 1,400, while in Syria the estimated number of deaths nearly reached 800 in June 2017,” it outlined.

That year, the US-led coalition was denounced for conducting gravely indiscriminate bombings against alleged Daesh targets to supposedly uproot the terror outfit.

Russia once likened the coalition’s attacks against the northern Syrian city of Raqqah, declared by Daesh as its so-called headquarters, to the bombings that happened over the German city of Dresden in 1945. The US literally “wiped Raqqah off the face of Earth” as a result of its carpet-bombing campaigns against the city, Moscow noted back then.

RAND advised that the US Air Force instead “allocate precision-guided munitions efficiently across theaters and identify how to safely use second- and third-choice munitions.”

Washington should also incorporate the use of air and ground force, instead of laying into targeted areas with just warplanes, the think tank said.

“The joint force should revise its targeting doctrine based on the experience in OIR, to include potentially incorporating the strike cell or reverting back to using the Joint Air Ground Integration Center,” RAND said.

Military experts say the fact that the US generally carries out such operations without deploying troops on the ground allows it to go on indiscriminate bombings more freely, since it would not need to exercise caution not to target its own forces.

“The [US] Air Force should continue to develop more targeteers and intelligence professionals to support a reinvigoration of the target-development process,” the report said.

The presence of the bloated coalition, meanwhile, did not prevent Baghdad and Damascus from relying heavily on their allies to finally dislodge the terrorists in late 2017.

Iran provided military advisory support to both countries while Russia delivered aerial backup for Syria’s ground operations against terrorists.

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