The very sad fact is that the Regime wouldn't admit to collateral damage if the media didn't report it. The only reason the media reports it is because some Islamic terrorist organization told them there was collateral damage killing women and children. And they would claim it happened even if the only thing destroyed was an ant hill.
I am pretty sure we always inevitably cause collateral damage, unless we work to break the enemy’s spine, we will be stuck in a long unresolved conflict like Vietnam. We actually fought to win World War II, and fought to win, even with infliction of civilian casualties.