Syrian airstrikes against the ISIS capital of Raqqa this week ended up killing scores of civilians, 95 of them by some accounts, has fueled a round of US condemnations, accusing them of deliberately targeting residential areas.
Syria denied the accusations, saying the death tolls were “fabricated” and that they are being far more careful about civilian casualties than, say, the nations that are arming random rebel factions in the country.
Syrian officials went on to accuse the US of ignoring the number of civilians killed by ISIS, which is a number far greater than those alleged to have happened in this round of airstrikes.
Reports of large civilian tolls are nothing new, but it is noteworthy that the Assad government is using the exact same tactics the Pentagon is using in reports of its own civilian deaths in US airstrikes against the exact same territory. The strategy is to deny the deaths, and to follow that up by accusing the enemy they’re attacking of being way worse at any rate.
