U.N. says 300 civilians killed in U.S.-led air strikes in Raqqa since March

Reuters ^ | 06/14/2017 | By Stephanie Nebehay

[SeekAndFind]

Intensified coalition air strikes have killed at least 300 civilians in the Syrian northern city of Raqqa since March, as U.S.-backed forces close in on the stronghold of Islamic State forces, U.N. war crimes investigators said on Wednesday.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a U.S.-led coalition, began to attack Raqqa a week ago to take it from the jihadists. The SDF, supported by heavy coalition air strikes, have taken territory to the west, east and north of the city.

"Coalition air strikes have intensified around the city," said Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry.

"As the operation is gaining pace very rapidly, civilians are caught up in the city under the oppressive rule of ISIL, while facing extreme danger associated with movement due to excessive air strikes," he told reporters.

Karen Abuzayd, an American commissioner on the independent panel, said: "We have documented the deaths caused by the coalition air strikes only and we have about 300 deaths, 200 in one place, in al-Mansoura, one village."

The U.N. investigators do not have access to Syria. They interview survivors and witnesses in neighboring countries or by Skype with those still in Syria.

Pinheiro, speaking earlier to the U.N. Human Rights Council, said that there had been a "staggering loss of civilian life" due to coalition air strikes that had forced 160,000 civilians to flee their homes.

Rival forces are racing to capture ground from Islamic State around Raqqa, and the Syrian army is also advancing on the desert area west of the city.

Separately, Human Rights Watch expressed concern in a statement about the use of incendiary white phosphorous weapons by the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, saying it endangered civilians

[Gene Eric]

Since Reuters no longer uses the term, ‘terrorist’, those ‘civilians’ could be terrorists for all we know.

[BipolarBob]

Exactly. They have the same credibility as SeeBS News.

[Texas Fossil]

“incendiary white phosphorous weapons”

There were no white phosphorus weapons used.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Only 300? Not nearly enough.

[angcat]

WHO CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Innovative]

” those ‘civilians’ could be terrorists for all we know.”

They most likely are terrorists, since they don’t wear uniforms, they apparently are considered “civilians”.

But they were terrorists nevertheless.

[factoryrat]

ISIS is rounding up Christians and burning them alive in cages as their latest atrocity against the infidels.

And the UN is hand wringing about civilian casualties.

War is hell.

ISIS are literally the modern day barbarians at the gates. They need to be eradicated at all costs, no exception.

I don’t give a crap what Turkey, Syria, or Iraq want, or any other ME shithole for that matter, ISIS needs to be tracked down and annihilated wherever they are found.

[rrrod]

Yawning

[DoughtyOne]

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[M Kehoe]

Dear Karen Abuzayd:

Have you ever heard of Dresden?

GFY.

5.56mm

[Yulee]

So how do you identify a civilian in these areas? How can you claim that a certain number of civilians have been killed.

Civilians have either fled, have been killed by ISIS, or are being held captive. The vast majority of people living in the ISIS area choose to do so, because they support the Caliphate.

ISIS and other Muslim Brotherhood groups never wear uniforms per say. They hide among civilians, and use them as shields. This is also true of the Iranian supported groups.

[shanover]

WTF are we doing there? What is the foreign policy objective and substantial benefit to American interests? They all hate us in one way or another except factions of the Kurds and Arabs. We are creating more enemies than friends and the perception/reality is that ISIS has been let off quite a bit by American forces. Furthermore, the White Phosphorus claim is a fabrication and accusation with no merit. The Mideast is a festering wound that will never heal and a pit that America can’t seem to get out of.

[ZULU]

Berlin, 1945:

The Reichs Chancellery just announced thousands of Civilians killed in fire bombing of Dresden. Allies decide to give up war effort. Churchill to apologize for war effort.

(What would have happened if today’s Liberals were fighting WW2)

[ZULU]

There were Byzantine Greeks saying much the same thing after Manzikert.

[Maverick68]

Name a single War in History that didn’t include civilian casualties.

[Enlightened1]

It’s ISIS Capital City...

Funny how the only time the U.N. care is when ISIS gets hit.

[kabar]

The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial centre, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war.

The attack during the last week of July 1943, Operation Gomorrah, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces in World War II, killing 42,600 civilians and wounding 37,000 in Hamburg and virtually destroying most of the city. Before the development of the firestorm in Hamburg there had been no rain for some time and everything was very dry. The unusually warm weather and good conditions meant that the bombing was highly concentrated around the intended targets and also created a vortex and whirling updraft of super-heated air which created a 460 meter high tornado of fire, a totally unexpected effect.

The bombing of Dresden was a British/American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, that took place during the Second World War in the European Theatre. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed over 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) of the city centre. An estimated 22,700 to 25,000 people were killed.

The Bombing of Tokyo (東京大空襲? Tōkyōdaikūshū), often referred to as a series of firebombing raids, was conducted as part of the air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. The US first mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942.

Strategic bombing and urban area bombing began in 1944 after the long-range B-29 Superfortress bomber entered service, first deployed from China and thereafter the Mariana Islands. B-29 raids from those islands began on 17 November 1944, and lasted until 15 August 1945, the day Japan capitulated. The Operation Meetinghouse air raid of 9–10 March 1945, which annihilated 16 square miles (41 km2) and left over 1 million homeless, was later estimated to be the single most destructive bombing raid in human history. The Japanese later called this event Night of the Black Snow.

The US Strategic Bombing Survey later estimated that nearly 88,000 people died in this one raid, 41,000 were injured, and over a million residents lost their homes. The Tokyo Fire Department estimated a higher toll: 97,000 killed and 125,000 wounded. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department established a figure of 83,793 dead and 40,918 wounded and 286,358 buildings and homes destroyed. Historian Richard Rhodes put deaths at over 100,000, injuries at a million and homeless residents at a million. These casualty and damage figures could be low.

In his 1968 book, reprinted in 1990, historian Gabriel Kolko cited a figure of 125,000 deaths. Elise K. Tipton, professor of Japan studies, arrived at a rough range of 75,000 to 200,000 deaths. Donald L. Miller, citing Knox Burger, stated that there were "at least 100,000" Japanese deaths and "about one million" injured.

[lurk]

Civilians who wanted out have fled the city over the last year. The ones left are ISIS friendly. Stinks to be them.

[WASCWatch]

300 civilian deaths, even if true, is a remarkably low number.