RAF strikes kill 4,300 IS fighters and just 1 civilian

RAF pilots have killed or injured 4,315 Islamic State fighters since the campaign against the terror group began, official figures show.

But only one civilian died in the airstrikes, the Ministry of Defence claimed.

The numbers, released to charity Action on Armed Violence, show 4,013 combatants were killed between September 2014 and January this year, while 302 survived with injuries.

The one civilian died in March last year, crossing into the strike area on a motorbike just before a blast, the MoD said.

It comes as Islamic State nears total defeat on the battlefield. Remaining diehard fighters in the village of Baghouz in Syria are expected to be routed by Kurdish-led forces within days.

The low RAF casualty toll has been met with some scepticism, however.

Action on Armed Violence executive director Iain Overton said ‘the ratio of one civilian casualty against 4,315 enemies must be a world record in modern conflict’. He added that the numbers were only an estimate.

An MoD spokesman said: ‘After every British airstrike we conduct detailed battle damage assessment.’