US-led coalition acknowledges more civilian deaths in war against ISIS

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) acknowledged Thursday killing another nine civilians, bringing its total to 892 since the start of the war.

“In each of five incidents, the investigation assessed that although all feasible precautions were taken and the decision to strike complied with the law of armed conflict, unintended civilian casualties regrettably occurred,” the coalition said in its latest monthly report.

The coalition has long been accused of seriously undercounting the number of civilians it has killed. For example, prominent monitor Airwars says that at least 6,259 civilians have been killed by the coalition since the start of the war in 2014.

In its latest report, the coalition finished assessing 159 reports of civilian casualties. Of that, 149 were deemed “non-credible,” and five were determined to be duplicates of reports that were previously assessed or are currently being assessed.

For most of the non-credible reports, the coalition said there was insufficient evidence to assess the credibility or determine whether there were civilian casualties. In others, the coalition said it found it did not conduct any strikes in the area where the casualties were reported.

The five credible reports were:

— A Jan. 9, 2017, strike near Mosul, Iraq, that destroyed an ISIS car bomb but also killed two civilians.

— A Nov. 1, 2017, strike near Al Hiri village in Deir Ezzour, Syria, on an ISIS-traveled road, that injured two civilians and killed three when they entered the impact area.

— A Nov. 16, 2017, strike near al Shadadi, Syria, against an ISIS-held building, which injured two civilians.

— A Dec. 28, 2017, strike near Rayhaniyah, Syria, which injured two civilians and killed three when they crossed into the impact area.

— A Jan. 18, 2018, strike near Abu Kamal, Syria, against an ISIS-held building, which killed one civilian when a scooter entered the impact area moments before the blast.

The coalition is still assessing 321 reports of civilian casualties, it added.