MP: 100s of Iraqi Soldiers Killed in US-Led Air Raids

Rasa - An Iraqi lawmaker blamed the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group in the country and neighboring Syria for killing hundreds of army soldiers and pro-government fighters from the Popular Mobilizations during airstrikes against alleged militant hideouts.

News ID: 431056

Date: 17 July 2017 - 21:48

RNA - Faleh al-Khazali, a member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee, said in a statement that US-led military aircraft have struck Iraqi forces in many areas, and killed hundreds of them, Iraq News Network reported.

Khazali added that the Western military contingent is “not serious about fighting Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) militants, and seeks to support them through maintaining safe and accessible supply routes.”

The Iraqi legislator further called on the Joint Operations Command (JOC) to “coordinate, control and provide more accurate information regarding the strikes of the US-led coalition in a bid to reduce the loss of innocent civilians as well as government troops.”

Khazali underlined that the extent of the damage caused by the US-led coalition warplanes could be best surveyed in the troubled western province of Anbar, where the substantial level of destruction has delayed the return of displaced people to their native areas.

According to reports, US-led coalition air strikes have killed hundreds of civilians in Syria. The air raids have resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to tens of thousands of civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced.

The UN investigators announced that intensified US-led coalition air raids on ISIL's strongholds in Raqqa are causing a "staggering loss of civilian life".

Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry, said that intensified coalition airstrikes have killed at least 300 civilians in the Syrian Northern city of Raqqa since March.

He added that "we note in particular that the intensification of air strikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced."

Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that "the battle for Raqqa is not just about defeating ISIS (ISIL or Daesh), but also about protecting and assisting the civilians who have suffered under ISIL rule for three and a half years.”

“Coalition members and local forces should demonstrate concretely that the lives and rights of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Raqqa are a parallel priority in the offensive,” Fakih added.

Pentagon chief James Mattis has recently said that the US is “accelerating the tempo” of the fight against ISIL, and that civilian deaths should be anticipated as a “fact of life”.

The comments came after new figures from war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights found that the last four-week period was the deadliest for Syrian civilians on record since the US-led coalition bombing campaign began in 2014.

Based on reports, since the first days of 2017 hundreds of civilians have been killed in the US-led coalition's airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

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