1256 Civilians Have Been Killed Including 383 Children
Since the intervention of the US-led international coalition forces started on September 23, 2014, SNHR has been working on following-up and documenting the violations perpetrated by these forces. In this regard, SNHR has released 11 special reports that focused on the incidents where civilians were killed and vital civilian facilities were targeted.
These days mark 1000 days since the start of these operations. According to the periodic follow-ups and the daily and monthly incidents that we have recorded, we feel it is important to point out on the following main points:
First: Human losses are unacceptably high and reflects a glaring carelessness
The international coalition forces’ attack in 2014 and 2015 demonstrated a greater precision and were more focused in targeting ISIS’s military sites, and caused less civilian casualties. In contrast, the attacks that were carried out in 2016 and up until May 2017 were more indiscriminate and chaotic as we noticed.
International coalition forces killed 1256 civilians at least, including 383 children and 221 women (adult female), from the start of the intervention on September 23, 2014 until the beginning of May 2017. We have the details on most of those victims.
Interestingly enough, approximately 80% of the total number of victims that have been killed since the start of the intervention were killed between January 1, 2016 and the beginning of May 2017 with no less than 998 civilians, including 304 children and 178 women, killed.
Furthermore, a total of 51 massacres have been perpetrated by the international coalition forces since September 23, 2014 as of this writing. Of those 51 massacres, 34 were perpetrated in al Raqqa governorate alone, up to 67% of the total number of massacres, and 12 in Aleppo governorate.
Second: Severe material loses by bombing vital civilian facilities
International coalition forces were responsible for no less than 106 incidents of attack on vital civilian facilities, including 46 attacks on bridges which were the most targeted facilities. Most of these bridges were rendered out of service, which led to economic and social ramifications that affected the lives of the local residents. We don’t believe that these bridges were used regularly in the service of military operations. We have released a report in that regard entitled: “Deir Ez-Zour, a limb-severed governorate” which documents the bombing of bridges in Deir Ez-Zour alone by international coalition forces.