US military investigating if airstrikes caused nearly 300 civilian deaths
Washington (CNN) The US military is investigating whether it was responsible for the deaths of nearly 300 Syrian and Iraqi civilians in three different sets of airstrikes this month.
Civilian casualties have been alleged in all three instances, but each situation is different and complex, a US defense official said. So far, there is no indication of a breakdown in US military procedures governing airstrikes, the official stressed, and the US is not contemplating a pause in military operations.
But the potential that the US is responsible for some, or all, of the deaths is considered serious enough that Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq and Syria, is working around the clock trying to assess exactly what happened, the official said.
The possibility of US military responsibility in civilian deaths illustrates the growing challenge of conducting increased airstrikes in the densely populated neighborhoods of both west Mosul and Raqqa, officials said.
The most extensive case involves western Mosul. The US military is trying to determine if sometime between March 17 and March 23, bombs dropped in a neighborhood by US warplanes resulted in the deaths of more than 200 civilians. The incidents military officials are looking into are based largely on local reports and social media accounts of the strikes.
"The coalition conducted several strikes near Mosul and we will provide this information to our civilian casualty team for further investigation," Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said.
Coalition forces announced Saturday that they have opened a formal investigation into the alleged civilian casualties in western Mosul, saying data from that time frame confirms military strikes hit ISIS forces "at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties" on March 17.
The coalition "takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously" and opened the investigation "to determine the facts surrounding this strike and the validity of the allegation of civilian casualties," the statement said.
Separately, a US defense official told CNN the military is trying to determine how many civilians were killed in the Mosul strikes and how it may have happened. Some of the questions the military is asking are: Did the US strike the buildings that the civilians were allegedly killed in, and if so, why did the US not know civilians were there? Did US forces strike the wrong buildings and not what they meant to target? How many civilians might have been killed? Were they killed by US bombs, or was there a secondary explosion from the bombing or blast waves that caused further destruction?
The US has not ruled out the possibility that ISIS was using some people as human shields, but the official who has direct knowledge of the investigation said there is urgency to find out if the US was responsible because of the scope of what may have happened.
However, US officials cautioned that local reports can be difficult to verify because the US does not have anyone on the ground, and may be unreliable because they lack the precise detail the military wants to have to determine what happened.
The chairman of Nineveh Provincial Council in Iraq, Bashar al Kiki, told CNN that at least 200 people were killed in the western Mosul neighborhoods of al Jadidah, al Amel and al Yarmouk in airstrikes by the US-led coalition and Iraqi Air Force on March 22 and March 23. The Iraqi official demanded an end to military operations in the area until civilians' safety can be guaranteed.
"Most of (those) killed are civilians, among them children and women," al Kiki told CNN. "Nineveh Provincial Council members call on Iraqi security forces to stop the military operations in these areas immediately and until we guarantee the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians."
And Basma Bassem, a member of the Mosul City Council, told CNN that the death toll could rise significantly because rescue operations are still underway.
The Pentagon spokesman said the US is studying the allegations. "The coalition has opened a formal civilian casualty credibility assessment on this allegation, and we are currently analyzing conflicting allegations and all possible strikes in that area," Pahon said.
The US military also has begun a formal investigation into a March 16 airstrike in northern Syria, where local reports say a mosque was struck and more than 40 people died. For days the Pentagon said there were no civilian casualties in the March 16 incident, even as numerous social media reports showed images of bodies being carried out of the rubble.
In the initial hours following the strike by US drones and aircraft, the Pentagon had been adamant that it had only hit a building some 40 feet away from the mosque, where it said al Qaeda members were holding a meeting.
"We do not currently assess there were any civilian casualties," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters on March 17, the day after the strike. "As always, you know we take extraordinary measures to mitigate the loss of civilian life in our operations."
At the time, Davis also showed a photo of the still-standing mosque and a larger building a short distance away. Half of that building had been clearly destroyed in an airstrike. The Pentagon could not say if that larger building had any religious use, and would only say it was certain that a meeting of al Qaeda operatives was underway when it was struck. Defense officials said then that they were convinced the target was legitimate and no civilians were present based on lengthy overhead surveillance before and after the strike.
The investigation into the March 16 airstrike will be conducted under Army rules in a so-called "15-6" fact-finding investigation, named after the regulation governing how it will be conducted. Two US defense officials confirmed the investigation has been initiated by the Joint Special Operations Command which conducted the mission. The investigation will eventually be reviewed by Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the US Central Command, who oversees all military operations in the region. Votel can either accept the investigation's findings, or send it on for further review by military legal authorities, the officials said.
This is not a criminal investigation. But by using this method, an investigating officer is appointed who then has the ability to question US military personnel and review classified material -- in this case to determine if civilians were killed. If that determination is made, it will be up to Votel to decide if further action is warranted.
The same investigatory process has been used by Central Command recently in two highly controversial cases. In 2015, a US Air Force AC-130 gunship attacked a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing several people. The investigation found that military procedures were not followed, leading to the wrong building being attacked. Most recently, an investigation into the shooting deaths of three Army Special Forces soldiers in Jordan found they were behaving correctly when they entered a Jordanian military base, something that was originally disputed.
In a third instance, Central Command is also reviewing an airstrike against a school building Wednesday near Raqqa. Local activists have said an airstrike may have killed more than 30 civilians seeking shelter there. The US was conducting strikes in the area, the defense official said. Central Command is trying to determine if it hit the correct building, and if civilians whom US military officials did not know about may have been inside.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.
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US Marines join local forces fighting in Raqqa
(CNN)US Marines have arrived in northern Syria with artillery to support US-backed local forces fighting there, two US officials told CNN.
The US-backed fighters are preparing to move in the coming weeks to assault the city of Raqqa, ISIS' self-declared capital, according to the officials. The Pentagon and the Marine Corps have declined to confirm the deployment because of security concerns in the region. They have also declined to specify the exact location of the forces or how many are there.
The Washington Post was the
first to report the deployment of the Marines.
Photos: Life inside Raqqa
In this photo from November 29, 2015, provided to CNN by the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, residents assess the damage to a building in the northern Syrian city -- ISIS's headquarters -- which has been the target of French airstrikes in recent weeks.
The deployment does not come as a surprise. Military commanders have discussed for weeks the possibility of putting artillery forces into the area, with the goal of accelerating the capabilities of the US-backed Arab and Kurdish forces there. A similar deployment last year near Mosul, Iraq involved several hundred Marines equipped with artillery guns that fire shells to provide covering fire for advancing forces.
Because Marines were already deployed to the region, the movement into Syria did not have to be specifically approved by President Donald Trump or Defense Secretary James Mattis -- but both the White House and Pentagon were aware of the plan, officials said.
The Marines deployed from ships in the Persian Gulf region.
This is the second major expansion of US ground forces in northern Syria in days.
The US has also deployed approximately 100 Army Rangers in and around Manbij, Syria. US officials have taken the unusual step of publicly talking about the Ranger deployment and where they are located to protect against them inadvertently coming under fire from forces fighting in the region or Turkish, Russian or Syrian forces. The US troops in Manbij are trying to deter hostilities due to their visible presence, rather than the typical mission of training, advising and assisting local forces.
It is also not clear if the deployment of the Marines and Rangers violates the current cap on US forces in Syria. That cap broadly restricts the US to having more than 500 forces there at any one time. Until now, troops in the area have largely been Special Operations Forces.
The US believes the pressure on ISIS in Raqqa is working. A US official told reporters Wednesday that intelligence indicates some ISIS leadership and operatives continue to try to leave the city. There is also US intelligence that indicates the city is laced with trenches, tunnels, roadside bombs and houses and buildings wired to explode, the official said. If correct, it indicates that the US has likely been able to gather intelligence from both overhead surveillance aircraft and people on the ground.
However, the official also noted that "Raqqa will probably not be the final battle against ISIS," and added that the group still has some personnel dispersed in areas south and east of the city.
ISIS could have as many as 4,000 fighters in Raqqa, according to very rough US estimates, the official said.
By
Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent
http://edition.cnn.com/marines-raqqa-assault-syria/.html