US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday released an end of the year report that said US troops carried out 313 missions in Iraq and Syria against ISIS, killing 686 suspected members of the terrorist group.
Breaking it down by country, the command said US troops participated in 108 partnered operations with the Kurdish-led SDF and 14 unilateral missions in Syria that killed 466 ISIS “operatives.” In Iraq, US troops took part in 191 partnered operations with Iraqi government forces, which killed 220 ISIS operatives.
The biggest battle took place at a prison in Al-Hasakah, Syria that holds thousands of ISIS fighters. Fighting ensued after an attempted prison breakout, and the US gave air support to SDF fighters on the ground.
According to CENTCOM, more than 420 suspected ISIS members and 120 SDF fighters were killed in the battle. Reports at the time of the battle said that ISIS had about 850 children held hostage in the prison, and at least two were killed as a result of the battle, but that wasn’t mentioned by CENTCOM.
A 17-year-old Australian boy who was in the prison at the time of the battle told Human Rights Watch that he estimated 15 to 20 children were killed. The boy said he was injured by a US Apache helicopter strike. CENTCOM offered no estimate of civilian casualties that were killed as a result of any of its operations.
In one US special forces raid in Syria against an ISIS leader in February, civilians were reported killed, which was confirmed by the Pentagon. Some reports said up to six children were killed and four women. President Biden said the raid was “successful” because it killed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who replaced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the leader of ISIS after he was killed in a similar raid in 2019.
Back in July, President Biden falsely claimed that US troops are no longer involved in combat operations in the Middle East. Ahead of his visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia, Biden said he would be “the first president to visit the Middle East since 9/11 without US troops engaged in a combat mission there.”
Besides US operations in Iraq and Syria, Biden told Congress that US troops are also deployed in Yemen to conduct operations against al-Qaeda. While not technically in the Middle East, Biden deployed additional troops to Somalia this year and has been ramping up the drone war against al-Shabaab.
I have zero sympathy for ISIS, but we don’t even know how many civilians and children that were killed and probably don’t care. Just collateral damage.
Disagree. While not perfect, US goes out of their way to avoid civilians deaths. Unlike Russia who targets civilians.
I’ve never noticed that the US regime goes out of its way to avoid civilian deaths. It goes out of its way to conceal civilian deaths, to avoid discussing civilian deaths, and to shift blame for civilian deaths, but that’s not quite the same thing.
Well Tom did you not notice that when the US killed Ayman al-Zawahiri they used a special version of the Hellfire missile that is designed to kill a single person without an explosion? Instead of blowing up his entire house, they just killed him on the balcony without killing others.
And when they killed Osama bin Laden they could have just sent 6 Harpoons and blew his compound to pieces, but that would have killed 20 innocent woman and children.
How many times do you think that the US called off a mission to protect civilians? More than you think.
You and I will disagree on this, US tries to avoid civilians deaths. The US is not perfect, but they try. Russia does not.
I noticed that the US regime claims they only killed al-Zawahiri. Just like the US regime always claims it only killed combatants or other “legitimate targets” and sticks to that story until and unless it’s so dispositively disproven that the story has to change to “if Abdulrahman and Nawar al-Awlaki didn’t want to be murdered by us, they should have picked a different father.”
Claims that the US regime is especially careful to avoid killing civilians are garbage on the same level as the posts we see here attempting to explain Russian slowness or failure with “the Russian regime cares soooooooooo very, very much about avoiding civilian casualties.”
Let’s talk about that “righteous strike” in Afghanistan. You know the one where we had to kill somebody to avenge those 13 Marines getting killed. But we stuck with the story that we killed terrorists until video footage proved otherwise and we had turned 10 innocents into pink mist.
Yep, and then the US admitted it as well as many others.
Has Russia ever admitted to any wrongdoing?
No. Never.
Yes, they admit to killing civilians every time they lie about killing civilians and get caught lying about killing civilians. The Afghanistan strike would still be “righteous” otherwise. And this has absolutely nothing to do with Russia.
Of course it has nothing to do with Russia. Why would it?. That’s the side you support and never ever criticize.
“Why would it?”
You obviously didn’t ask yourself that question. This article is about the US’ bullsh*t and has NOTHING to do with Russia. And, once more, I don’t “support” or “root” for either side. That would be you.
I just remember “Little BUSH” and Iraq!
Your jingoism is disgusting. Have you no shame?
“US Says US Troops Killed 686 Suspected ISIS Members in 2022”
Biden says army “Intuition Training” helped troops defensively open fire on street citizens they “suspected” might be ISIS members. “Y’know, Republicans say women are too emotional, so they wanta’ take away their right to go to the lady’s room,” elaborated the US President, “But here I think feminine intuition is a pretty good thing.”
Thank you, for the women’s intuition acknowledgment. 🙂
Joey Biden’s britches are too big for him.
“Thank you, for the women’s intuition acknowledgment.”
‘If you don’t support our troops’ intuitions, you ain’t a woman!’ Biden responded to one female journalist who asked how many of the killed “suspects” actually were ISIS members.
How the h*ll do we know it is true?
“Australian boy” Sure, Dave. And not a “prisoner”, he just “was at the prison at the time”.
So it sounds like he wasn’t an ISIS invader. Sounds like he’s an “Australian boy” who just happened to be there. Maybe on vacation?
(Sarcasm Alert) Again, in case you forgot: Russian bombs are dumb. They only kill civilians and destroy maternity hospitals. US bombs are smart. They only kill ISIS members. But if any children die in the process, it’s ISIS fault because they were holding them hostage. Capiche? …What’s that? I’m being ridiculous? Am I more ridiculous than what you’re told by the MSM everyday?
I rather thought that this was common knowledge…!
I heard that the American Bombs & Drones have sensers that will only kill “Male Terrorists”!
Murdering bastards..
“CENTCOM offered no estimate of civilian casualties that were killed as a result of any of its operation.”
If “initial assessments” are to be believed, that would be zero. Just like that initial assessment of that “righteous strike” in Afghanistan that made 10 innocents into pink mist.
I don’t care if you are the military, you just can’t go around killing everyone and everything… Oh wait, I’m wrong. 😉
SUSPECTED ? , so i will take that as the majority where CIVILIANS , they are still to explain how they killed 160 CIVILIANS in Somalia .
And then they figured out 685 of them were civilians mostly women and children….