ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 40 reports by a war monitor regarding civilian casualties in US-led airstrikes have been labeled as “non-credible” by coalition officials.

The US-led Global Coalition to defeat ISIS has been in Iraq since 2014 to train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). Over the border, they have also collaborated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The coalition conducted 34,819 airstrikes against ISIS remnants in Iraq and Syria between August 2014 and the end of March 2020, according to a monthly civilian casualty report released on Thursday.

In the report, it claimed that at least 1,377 civilians have been killed “unintentionally” since 2014.

However, it dismissed approximately 40 reports by Airwars- an independent war monitor - on civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as “non-credible.”

The reports, which date from 2015 to 2019, included 14 strikes across Iraq, including Mosul.

“After a review of all available records it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the reports of civilian casualties,” the coalition said of the allegations.

“This has been the most transparent air campaign in history,” the coalition added in a Sunday email. “We have cooperated in detail with NGOs such as Airwars, answered all their questions, and responded fully to all the allegations they have provided to us.”

The coalition also said that all missions in Iraq and Syria “comply fully with international humanitarian law.”

“Every care is taken to minimize the effect of our military action on civilians and civilian objects,” it added.

Airwars estimates 8,000 to 13,000 civilians have died in US-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

Mohammed al-Jumaily, an Iraq researcher for Airwars told Rudaw English that the coalition does not conduct field investigations- hence the dismissals of further civilian casualties.

“Unfortunately, because it does not conduct field investigations, the Coalition has dismissed as 'non credible' many such allegations,” al-Jumaily said in an email on Friday.

Al-Jumaily also revealed that the coalition officials have always claimed that they will reopen investigations if there is new information regarding the cases, “making it particularly important that those in affected communities speak out.”

“Many of the cases now being investigated by the coalition took place four or five years ago - and were often not well reported at the time,” he added.

Although the government announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq in December 2017, remnants of the group have returned to their earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable rural populations.

ISIS insurgent activities have increased in recent weeks, with militants killing three federal police officers and wounding two others in an attack on Zaghniya police station in Diyala province on late Saturday.

ISIS militants also carried out multiple attacks against Iraqi security forces early Saturday in Saladin province, killing ten members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi. It was ISIS’s biggest attack in Iraq since its territorial defeat.

Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari vowed last week to “ramp up” anti-ISIS efforts.

Despite Iraq’s coronavirus lockdown measures and the US-led coalition’s withdrawal from several bases across Iraq, the ISF has stepped up its operations against ISIS remnants active in the country’s remote deserts and mountains.

Between January 1 and April 15, the ISF carried out 1,060 operations and killed 135 ISIS targets, defense ministry spokesperson Yehia Rasool said on April 21.

At least 88 ISF soldiers were killed and 174 wounded during these operations. During the same period, 82 civilians were killed and 120 injured.

In a phone call with Rudaw English on Wednesday, Rasool claimed all of the civilian casualties were the result of ISIS attacks and explosives.

“No civilians died due to Iraqi Security Forces military operations,” he said.

Rudaw