The US-led military coalition has called its war against the Islamic State the “most precise air campaign in history” despite having identified 16 civilians mistakenly killed and another nine injured in strikes last summer.
Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the coalition, told reporters on Friday he expects “additional announcements” about civilian casualties in the “near future”, pending ongoing internal investigations.
Ryder said the coalition currently has 14 allegations of casualty incidents left to sift through, five of which have prompted active investigations, after it closed 19 investigations and rejected 87 other allegations for what Ryder said was a lack of credibility.
The coalition’s internal assessments of civilian casualties it has inflicted is also markedly lower than other independent estimates during the 18-month war over Iraq and Syria.
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