© REUTERS/ Khalid al Mousily
The Guardian: 'Crazy numbers': civilian deaths from airstrikes almost double in a year
British involvement under scrutiny after study identifies 42% rise in number of civilians killed by explosives
More than 15,000 civilians were killed by explosive weapons in 2017, a jump of 42% in a year, according to a global survey seen by the Guardian.
The rise – driven by airstrikes, which killed almost double the number of civilians in 2017 compared with the previous year – coincided with US-led military operations to reclaim the Islamic State strongholds of Mosul, in Iraq, and Raqqa, in Syria.
MPs said the figures were “deeply concerning” and raised questions over the transparency of legal criteria used by the Ministry of Defence to determine whether an individual is an Isis combatant.
The UK has said it has no credible evidence of its airstrikes resulting in civilian deaths, while the US military has revealed it unintentionally killed at least 801 civilians in Syria and Iraq.
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WNU Editor: 2017 was the year when urban warfare reached its peak in the battle for Mosul. And then there are the bombardments by Russian and Syrian warplanes in Syria. Add in IEDs, suicide bomb attacks, etc., and map it on a global scale .... this 15,000 number may be at the low end.
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