ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Nearly 4900 people, including more than 400 civilians, have been killed in US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria during 20 months of operations. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has been closely monitoring the situation in Syria. In numbers released Tuesday, they state that, between dawn on September 23, 2014 and dawn on May 23, 2016, 4885 people have been killed in coalition airstrikes. “Among the total casualty there are 417 civilian Syrian citizen, including 111 person under the age of eighteen, and 70 citizen women over the age of eighteen,” SOHR reported. Of the nearly 4900 killed, 3412 were members of the Islamic State, “the majority of them are not Syrians.” In addition, 136 fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and 10 fighters from Jaysh al-Sunna were killed by coalition forces. The US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Syria includes Australia, Bahrain, France, the Netherlands, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Canada was involved but ceased its airstrikes in Syria and Iraq in March of this year, opting to focus on training and other support assistance. It is estimated that the number of civilian deaths in airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq is more than 1000. The United States has stated that it takes civilian deaths very seriously and investigates every allegation, no matter the source. “We take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously, and we apply very rigorous standards in our targeting process to avoid or to minimize civilian casualties in the first place,” said a US Central Command (CENTCOM) media officer last December. SOHR condemned the airstrikes hitting civilians noting that, in addition to killing hundreds of civilians, millions have been displaced. “[T]he international community continues to stay in silence regarding the Syrian people and their pain and hopes of reaching a country of justice, equality, democracy and freedom.” These figures do not include casualties from Syrian regime or Russian airstrikes. Airwars, a monitoring organization, believes Russian airstrikes have killed over 2000 civilians. Estimates for civilian casualties from regime airstrikes are also high; Damascus has been accused of deliberately targeting civilians. The Syrian Network for Human Rights has reported that they regime was responsible for more than 10,000 civilian deaths in 2015 alone.
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