US Central Command found six airstrikes in Iraq and Syria resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians, according to the results of several civilian casualty investigations announced this week. The six strikes, carried out between July 28, 2015, and April 29, 2016, are in addition to the investigations into recent reports of civilian deaths announced earlier this week. Investigations found that on July 28, 2015, a strike on a senior Khorasan Group adviser near Idlib, Syria, killed three civilians when their vehicle “appeared in the target area after the coalition aircraft released its weapon,” according to a CENTCOM release. On Feb. 15, 2016, three civilians were killed by a strike on an ISIS staging area near Al Qaim, Iraq. On Feb. 16, 2016, one person was injured along the side of the road when a coalition aircraft struck an ISIS vehicle near Ar Rayhaniyah, Iraq. On April 5, 2016, three civilians were killed when a coalition aircraft struck an ISIS financial storage facility. On April 26, 2016, one civilian was killed when a motorcycle “unexpectedly appeared in the target area after the US aircraft had already released its weapon” at an ISIS checkpoint in Sharqat, Iraq. On April 29, 2016, four civilians were killed in a targeted strike on Neil Prakash, an ISIS external operations facilitator, in Mosul.
The U.S. military is sending more fighter jets to the Middle East to step up its war with Iran, adding to what is already the largest buildup of airpower in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. For now, the operation shows little sign of coming to a quick…