Claims RAF killed 4000 jihadists, one civilian ‘absurd’

The British Government has claimed that only one civilian was killed by Royal Air Force bombs in Syria and Iraq that left more than 4000 Islamic State fighters dead or injured.

An estimated 4013 militants have died in 41⁄2 years of bombing, with 302 surviving with injuries, according to disputed Ministry of Defence figures.

The figures, covering September 2014 to January this year, were released yesterday following a Freedom of Information request by campaign group Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).

The United States-led coalition, of which Britain is the secondbiggest contributor, said it conducted 33,921 strikes over the period, resulting in at least 1257 civilians being unintentionally killed.

It is understood the RAF carried out more than 1700 strikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa and Mosul in Iraq, reporting only one civilian casualty in March 2017. The man died after entering the strike area on a motorcycle moments before the blast, the ministry said.

Airwars, an organisation that tracks civilian deaths, said it believed between 7500 and 12,077 non-combatants were likely to have died over the same period – 10 times higher than the official figures.

‘‘The RAF’s claim of a ratio of one civilian casualty against 4315 enemies must be a world record in modern conflict,’’ said Iain Overton, executive director of AOAV. ‘‘Yet few conflict experts believe this to be true. To them, it is clear that far more needs to be done by the UK to improve transparency surrounding civilian casualties from air strikes.

‘‘Its coalition partner – the US – has committed to such.’’

Air strikes flattened cities across Syria and Iraq, with morgues reported to have received as many as 9000 bodies from the ruins of Mosul, while mass graves of raid victims are still being found in Raqqa.

Lydia Wilson, a research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, said it was ‘‘absurd’’ to suggest that only one civilian was killed when whole cities were reduced to rubble. ‘‘I would ask how the RAF came at their numbers. That is, how they distinguish between fighters and civilians when buildings have collapsed on top of inhabitants, and on-the-ground, independent reporting is impossible,’’ she said.

The RAF insisted it had taken extreme care to avoid civilian casualties, and that this had been the most ‘‘precise’’ air campaign in history.

A ministry spokesman said: ‘‘After every British air strike, we conduct detailed battle damage assessment, which thoroughly examines the outcome of the strike against its target . . . This assessment also looks very carefully at whether or not there has been any civilian casualty or damage to civilian infrastructure.’’

Airwars said the UK’s refusal to acknowledge civilian casualties could be due to a reliance on ‘‘observable’’ evidence while dismissing reliable ground reports. It said the coalition almost never conducted field investigations, but relied heavily on remote analysis.