Amnesty condemns US-led coalition over Raqa civilian killings

BEIRUT: Amnesty International on Monday condemned the US-led coalition’s failure to acknowlege and investigate its role in civilian killings during the battle a year ago to oust jihadists from Syria’s Raqa.

In October last year, a KurdishArab alliance pushed the Islamic State group out of the northern city, backed by air strikes of the US-led coalition.

During the campaign to expel jihadists from the city, hundreds of civilians were killed in the battle, most of them in coalition bombardments, Amnesty says.

“The US-led coalition’s ongoing failure to admit to, let alone adequately investigate, the shocking scale of civilian deaths and destruction it caused in Raqa is a slap in the face for survivors,” the London-based group said in a statement.

One year on, Amnesty says that the coalition had admitted to having caused just 100 civilians deaths in the Raqa assault, but even in those cases accepted no liability.

“It is completely reprehensible that the coalition refuses to acknowledge its role in most of the civilian casualties it caused,” Amnesty’s new secretary-general Kumi Naidoo said.

“And it is abhorrent that even where it has admitted responsibility, it accepts no obligation towards its victims.”

Denouncing a “disturbing pattern” of civilian deaths, the rights groups urged the coalition to conduct a probe, both to establish the facts behind each deadly strike, and to avoid any future mistakes. — AFP