The US has added to the confusion about a major civilian casualty allegation in Afghanistan, complicating its initial statement that there were no innocents killed in the 4 November airstrike in Kunduz province.
Residents’ claims in the media that the attack on Chardara district had killed civilians were denied in the days following the incident.
According to officials, Afghan and U.S. military personnel are investigating reports that about 13 civilians were killed during an operation in Kunduz.
The U.S. military said it had launched a probe into what is believed to be a joint U.S.-Afghan operation on Nov. 3.
Afghan Defense Ministry said security officers were assigned to investigate the incident and the ministry’s spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, added that a death toll of civilians remains unconfirmed.
According to a new report published by the United Nations, airstrikes launched by the U.S.-led coalition led to the death of 1 in 4 civilians during the operation to ‘liberate’ the city from the Islamic State group.
The report, commissioned by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), reported that at an “absolute minimum,” 2,521 civilians were killed and 1,673 wounded during the U.S.-led coalition operation to retake the Islamic State group’s so-called capital in Iraq.
Royal Air Force drones and jets have dropped more than 3,400 bombs and missiles on Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, an investigation by Middle East Eye has revealed, yet the British government maintains that there is “no evidence” they have killed a single civilian.
The vast quantities of ordnance dropped since the start of Operation Shader against IS in 2014 seriously undermines the claim by ministers that the RAF has not caused any civilian casualties in the three-year-long bombing campaign, and has prompted calls for an investigation.
Opinion — America’s illegal war in the Syrian city of Raqqa has already killed over 1,800 civilians, according to the monitoring group Airwars. At the time the offensive was launched in June, the U.S. was aware that some 200,000 civilians were trapped.
The latest in a long line of disastrous airstrikes by Saudi warplanes across Yemen, officials reported an airstrike on Tuesday night in the northern Jawf Province, destroying a single civilian home, killing six civilians and critically wounded another.
The civilians killed were an entire family. The slain included the parents and four of their daughters. The lone survivor, who was injured, was their only son. Saudi officials gave no indication why the house was destroyed.
The latest quarterly report on Afghanistan civilian casualties from the United Nations once again is bad news, unsurprising since all other reports on the Afghan War for months have been worse and worse.
While the official Pentagon reports on civilian deaths claim far fewer deaths, NGOs have been consistently documenting a massive number of civilian bystanders killed in America’s air war in Iraq and Syria.
JP Sottile of http://newsvandal.com/ joins me in the first hour to discuss the next phase of the political soap opera that is Trump’s presidency. We focus on a recent article JP wrote examining the alt-right and the fantasy world they continue to live in. JP gives us his analysis of Steve Bannon’s exit from the White House and back to Breitbart. We talk about how Bannon is still very much in control of Trump’s talking points and the trajectory of his policies and ideology.
As reports mount of heavy civilian deaths at the hands of the United States coalition in Raqqa, the United Nations has expressed “deep concern” over the reports and has said that they condemn any attack directed against civilians or civilian infrastructure.
“In recent days and weeks scores of civilians have reportedly been killed and injured in Raqqa due to airstrikes and shelling and up to 25 thousand people remain trapped in the city,” Stephane Dujarric, U.N. Secretary General spokesperson said on Tuesday.
