Watchdog: US Has Killed Over 80 Civilians in Mosul Operation

Heavy Airstrikes, Artillery Strikes Fueling Casualties

British watchdog group Airwars has been collecting information about air and artillery strikes in and around the major northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and has found a substantial number of civilian casualties caused by US strikes since the Iraqi invasion began a month ago.

The group believes that the US has killed between 84 and 87 civilians in the strikes, and has injured over 160 others. The US has not offered any real comments on their casualties in Mosul strikes, but generally speaking dramatically under-reports the number killed.

Centcom didn’t respond directly to the new casualty figures, but did say that they are very careful about the attacks, saying they’re conducting “extensive checks” to avoid civilian casualties. They also bragged of hitting large numbers of ISIS targets.

Either way, the official report on casualties from the Pentagon probably won’t be out for at least six months, or longer, as there tends to be a substantial lag between the time of an incident and when it gets included in the final report. By the time of the report, major incidents that were well documented to begin with tend to be forgotten, and many are never mentioned again.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.