Civilian deaths from US-led bombings against IS double in year: Monitor

Civilian casualties from the US-led bombing against Islamic State targets likely more than doubled during the second year of the campaign, a monitoring group said on Monday to mark the second anniversary of US-led military intervention. 

Since it began exactly two years ago, the anti-IS coalition has launched more than 14,300 strikes, defined as any raid in which one or more munitions are dropped, according to Airwars, a London-based monitor that compiles data about the strikes and reports of civilian casualties. 

The coalition, which includes the UK, France, the Netherlands and Australia, significantly intensified its campaign in the second year, with the number of attacks up by 39 percent, the group added. 

The US, which is responsible for rules of engagement for the entire coalition, is still carrying out the vast majority of strikes itself. Over the two years of bombing in Syria, 95 percent of bombings have been launched by US planes, Airwars said. 

Between August 2014 and July 2016, the US spent an average of $11.9m per day on the bombings.

According to Airwars, the jump in the number of strikes has brought with it a spike in civilian deaths.

The group says that at least 1,568 non-combatants are likely to have been killed in the two years of the campaign.

Airwars has compiled reports of 527 separate incidents that have caused civilian casualties.

Airwars told Middle East Eye that the US-led coalition may have loosened its rules of engagement in Syria due to the large number of reported strikes and civilian casualties.

A bombing attributed to the coalition killed at least 56 civilians near the flashpoint Syrian town of Manbij late last month.

After two years of bombing, the US estimates that IS has been pushed back from 40 percent of the populated territory it once held in Iraq, and between 10 and 20 percent of the territory it had seized in Syria.