WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said yesterday it will investigate reports that civilians were killed in US-led air strikes in Syria this week but insisted the raids were carried out with precision.
The US military said its bombing raids were carefully calibrated to avoid civilian casualties and touted the role of coalition partners from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the latest strikes in Syria on Wednesday.
“We are aware of some reporting out there that there may have been civilian casualties, and we are taking a look at that,” spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.
“I would add, though, not as a caveat, but just to be completely transparent, we don’t have any credible operational reporting through operational channels that would sustain those allegations.”
Kirby said no other military in the world takes more care to avoid inadvertently killing civilians and that “we go to great lengths and great care to prevent collateral damage, and certainly any hazard to civilian populations.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said Wednesday’s raids against oil refineries held by the Islamic State (IS) group in eastern Syria killed 14 militants but also claimed the lives of five civilians, including a child.
Recounting the details of Wednesday’s round of strikes, Kirby said Saudi and UAE warplanes played the leading role in the attack on the oil installations, devoting more planes and dumping more bomb tonnage than American forces.
Ten warplanes from the two Arab states flew with six US aircraft in Wednesday’s raids on oil refineries held by the IS group. And 80 percent of the bomb tonnage was delivered by the Saudi and UAE planes, Kirby said. The strikes against 12 targets hit the majority of IS-held refineries but the extremist group still controlled several other refineries, he said. Showing reporters before-and-after photos and video footage of a few bombing runs, Kirby said the refineries had clearly been damaged. “They’re not going to be using these refineries for some time,” Kirby said.
But he added that the bombardment was designed to avoid “obliterating the refineries off the face of the map” so that a future government could some day use the facilities. President Barack Obama’s strategy against IS extremists calls for air power coupled with efforts to train and arm “moderate” Syrian rebel forces and Iraqi government troops.
The wider air campaign was launched early Tuesday, extending US-led air strikes into Syria after bombing IS militants in Iraq since August 8.AFP
