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Amnesty condemns US-led coalition over Raqa civilian killings
BEIRUT, Oct 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Amnesty International on Monday condemned
the US-led coalition’s failure to acknowlege and investigate its role in
civilian killings during the battle a year ago to oust jihadists from Syria’s
Raqa.
In October last year, a Kurdish-Arab alliance pushed the Islamic State
group out of the northern city, backed by air strikes of the US-led
coalition.
During the campaign to expel jihadists from the city, hundreds of civilians
were killed in the battle, most of them in coalition bombardments, Amnesty
says.
“The US-led coalition’s ongoing failure to admit to, let alone adequately
investigate, the shocking scale of civilian deaths and destruction it caused
in Raqa is a slap in the face for survivors,” the London-based group said in
a statement.
One year on, Amnesty says that the coalition had admitted to having caused
just 100 civilians deaths in the Raqa assault, but even in those cases
accepted no liability.
“It is completely reprehensible that the coalition refuses to acknowledge
its role in most of the civilian casualties it caused,” Amnesty’s new
secretary-general Kumi Naidoo said.
And it is “abhorrent that even where it has admitted responsibility, it
accepts no obligation towards its victims,” he said.
“It is completely reprehensible that the coalition refuses to acknowledge
its role in most of the civilian casualties it caused,” Amnesty’s new
secretary-general Kumi Naidoo said.
And it is “abhorrent that even where it has admitted responsibility, it
accepts no obligation towards its victims,” he said.
Denouncing a “disturbing pattern” of civilian deaths, the rights groups
urged the coalition to conduct a probe, both to establish the facts behind
each deadly strike, and to avoid any future mistakes.
“Surely, with hundreds of civilians dead, it begs the question what went
wrong,” Naidoo said, urging the coalition to look into issues such as weapons
used and quality of intelligence. “These are crucial details, to establish
both facts and assess lawfulness, as well as learn the lessons necessary to
avoid similar mistakes,” he said.
The latter was “fundamental to minimising harm to civilians — a legal
obligation”, he said.
IS overran large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, declaring a so-called
“caliphate” there, and the coalition intervened the same year to fight the
extremist group.
The jihadists have since seen their proto-state crumble, but cling on to a
presence in the Syrian desert and in an eastern pocket on the Iraqi border
where they are under attack by coalition-backed forces.
Since 2014 the US-led coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility for
more than 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put the
number killed much higher.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, says
coalition strikes in Syria alone have killed more than 3,300 civilians.
Syria’s war has killed more than 360,000 people since it erupted in 2011
with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0826 hrs