CENTCOM Releases Civilian Casualty Figures

Twenty-four US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria may have killed 64 civilians, and injured another eight, US Central Command announced on Wednesday. The strikes took place between Nov. 10, 2015, and Sept. 10, 2016, and were intended for ISIS targets such as weapons storage facilities, fighting positions, headquarters buildings, and weapons systems. In several of the strikes, CENTCOM said civilians had entered the target area after weapons were released. “It’s a key tenant of the counter-ISIL air campaign that we do not want to add to the tragedy of the situation by inflicting additional suffering,” Col. John Thomas, a CENTCOM spokesman, said in a release. “Sometimes civilians bear the brunt of military action, but we do all we can to minimize those occurrences even at the cost of sometimes missing the chance to strike valid targets in real time.” (See also: CENTCOM: 14 Civilians Killed in Six Separate US Airstrikes.)