All news

Russian source says US airstrikes in Syria, Iraq killed thousands, not 64

There were 7,300 US air raids in Iraq and Syria last year, and the US aviation continues delivering up to 20 air trikes a day, some of them conducted by B-1B and B-52N strategic bombers
A fighter jet before take off from the US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower AP Photo/Bram Janssen
A fighter jet before take off from the US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
© AP Photo/Bram Janssen

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Washington belittles the number of civilians killed in the US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, a source in Russia’s defense ministry said on Thursday, commenting on the recent statement of US Central Command spokesman John Thomas.

Thomas said just 64 people were killed and another 8 wounded in the US airstrikes in Syria and Iraq between November 2015 and September 2016.

"Such statements of the US Central Command representative suggest that the Pentagon does not consider the remainder thousands of peaceful Syrians and Iraqis killed by the US airstrikes as "humans," the source said.

According to the source, US warplanes make up to 20 air strikes a day in Syria and Iraq.

"In Syria and Iraq US aviation carries out up to 20 strikes a day. Last year there were 7,300 such air raids. Many of these missions are flown by strategic bombers B-1B and B-52N," the source said.

The source said 62 Syrian servicemen were killed and more than 100 others were wounded in the September US airstrike near Deir ez-Zor, in eastern Syria. "They were not terrorists or adversaries for the US Air Force, but they were not even mentioned (in this statistics)," he said.

In January, another US airstrike near Aleppo killed by an error 24 Syrian civilians and wounded over 40 others. Another 19 civilians, including three children, were killed in the US airstrikes in the Kurdish village Sulsana. The July US airstrike in Syria’s Tokhar claimed 56 lives. Another nine people, among them four children, were killed by the US bombing in Khamira. A total of 167 civilians, including 44 children, perished in the US airstrikes between May and July in Manbij.

The source said the US airstrikes also killed 92 civilians and wounded 135 others in the university premises in Iraq’s Mosul on March 20. More than 150 citizens of Mosul were killed by the US airstrikes on April 18. Another 21 civilians died and 44 others were wounded in the US bombing of a funeral procession in Dakuk.

The US-led international anti-terrorist coalition was formed in 2014 for struggle against the Islamic State (outlawed in Russia).

The coalition is currently taking part in a military operation to drive Islamic State militants out of Mosul - Iraq’s second largest city which has been under the Islamic State’s control for the past two years. The coalition has been conducting the anti-terrorist operation in Syria since 2014.