The United States’ department of defense in May published a report on civilian casualties resulting from its military activities in 2019.
BY OWN CORRESPONDENT
According to Pentagon official data, the US forces killed 132 citizens of other states in that year and injured 91 more. The most casualties were in Afghanistan where 108 people were killed.
Two civilians were killed in Somalia. No deaths were was reported killed in Lybia and Yemen.
But as The New York Times noted, watchdog groups that track conflicts in those countries, such as Amnesty International, Airwars and the United Nations, asserted that the Pentagon’s numbers are far lower than the reality on the ground.
“The content of the report, however, suggests that the Pentagon is still undercounting civilian casualties.” Daphne Eviatar, the director of security with Human Rights programme at Amnesty International, said.
Airwars estimated that during the first six months of 2019, the American-led coalition in Syria and Iraq killed between 416 to 1,030 civilians, a range that is far higher than the 22 civilians claimed in the Pentagon’s report.
The United Nations attributed 559 civilian deaths in Afghanistan to “international military forces” in its 2019 annual report on civilian harm.
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The United States is the only country with troops and aircraft in Afghanistan that conduct offensive operations.
And again it is far higher than the 108 civilians reported by the Pentagon.
Where and how the US military left traces
Destroying of Syria’s Raqqa.
The Syrian city of Raqqa is sometimes compared to German’s Dresden, which was destroyed by British and US air forces during World War II.
From June 6 to October 17, 2017, American planes bombed Raqqa, sparing no ammunition.
The intensity and indiscrimination of the bombing can be judged by the reports of military correspondents, who were at that time in Raqqa: “The bombs exploded right in the middle of residential neighbourhoods.”
The Americans and their allies did not hesitate to use even ammunition with white phosphorus, prohibited by international conventions.”
After several months of bombing, the city turned into ruins.
In April 2018, the UN official representative in Syria, Jan Egeland, admitted that there is much more serious damage than in the liberated by the Syrian government forces Aleppo and Homs.
According to the missions of the UN, 70% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that it was difficult for humanitarian organisations to operate in the city – many areas laid in ruins.
It was impossible to calculate the exact number of victims in such conditions.
When only two percent of ruins were dismantled the bodies of eight thousand Syrians were found.
Indiscriminate bombing of Iraqi Mosul
Even more brutally than Syrian Raqqa, the Americans bombed Iraqi Mosul.
The battle for the city lasted more than a year – from March 24, 2016 to July 10, 2017.
The Iraqi army stormed Mosul for a long time and unsuccessfully until the US Air Force increased the intensity of air strikes.
According to human rights organisations, coalition troops led by the United States used the tactics of total destruction, regardless of civilian casualties.
According to the UN, 15 out of 54 districts of only the western part of the city were destroyed almost to the ground.
Of the 32 000 buildings turned into ruins, the majority were residential buildings.
According to the Iraqi authorities, about 80 % of city hospitals are literally razed to the ground.
Accurately calculate the loss among the population still cannot. The UN speaks of 2,463 casualties. However, according to human rights activists, almost 6000 civilians died from air strikes alone.
In July 2017, the Iraqi government announced that more than 40,000 civilians were killed during the assault on Mosul. According to it, the majority are victims of massive coalition airstrikes.
Afghan casualties
In Afghanistan, over the 19 years of the war, the United States and its allies have repeatedly found themselves in the center of scandals related to the killing of civilians.
Often erroneous airstrikes were launched from drones, which sparked a debate in the United States about the ethical use of this type of weapon in combat.
The last case of “friendly fire” from drones was in late January, when five civilians were killed by a bombing in Kunduz province.
Formally, the United States respects polites and apologises every time. But they do not draw any conclusions and continue to shoot anywhere.
On May 4, 2009, the Americans set a kind of record by bombing two villages in the province of Farah and killing up to 150 civilians.
Four months later, on September 4, the Americans nearly repeated their “record” by attacking a column of fuel trucks from drones in the Char Dara area in Kunduz province , around which dozens of locals crowded around.
Up to 90 civilians were killed.
The cases when the American pilots mistook the Afghan weddings for the caravans of the militants and struck at them, just do not count.
Back in 2009, Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview with CNN called such military operations “unacceptable.”
The Pentagon has long promoted its commitment to avoiding civilian casualties but has been criticized for an opaque reporting process and disjointed steps to guarantee accountability.
