War of annihilation
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“WAR OF ANNIHILATION” DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International 53 strikes, at the time that the military operation was still under way. 105 A Coalition official dismissed the concerns raised by Amnesty International and by the UN Special Advisor on Syria, who had called for a pause in hostilities to allow civilians out of the city. 106 The Commander of Coalition forces, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend acknowledged that, after an escalation in attacks, “it is logical to assume there has been some increase in civilian casualties”, before going on to cast doubt over Amnesty International’s findings, saying, “I would ask someone to show me hard information.” 107
He further stated: “I think we are being as careful as we need to be and as we can be, and I would challenge the individual from the UN who made this hyperbolic statement that civilian casualties are staggering. Show me some evidence of that.” 108
US Defense Secretary James Mattis’ only response was: “We are the good guys and the innocent people on the battlefield know the difference.” 109
Destroyed neighbourhood in Raqqa. © Amnesty International
Following this in September 2017 and at the height of conflict in Raqqa, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend wrote that “… there has never been a more precise air campaign in the history of armed conflict”, 110
repeating a claim he had made at the start of the Raqqa campaign. 111
He went on to claim that reports of civilian casualties “…are often unsupported by fact and serve only to strengthen the Islamic State’s hold on civilians, placing civilians at greater risk… Our critics are unable to conduct the detailed assessments the Coalition does. They arguably often rely on scant information phoned-in or posted by questionable sources.” 112
A change of leadership does not appear to have brought a change of attitudes. In September 2017 Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend was replaced as Coalition commander by Lieutenant General Paul E. Funk II. In a December 2017 interview Lieutenant General Funk II also defended the accuracy of the air
105
“I won’t forget this carnage”: Civilians trapped in the fight for Raqqa – Syria, Amnesty International, 24 August 2017, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/08/syria-deadly-labyrinth-traps-civilians-trying-to-flee-raqqa/ 106 “No ‘worse place on earth’ than Syria’s Raqqa, says senior UN advisor urging for pause in fighting”, UN News, 24 August 2017, available at https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/08/563802-no-worse-place-earth-syrias-raqqa-says-senior-un-adviser-urging-pause-fighting. 107
Quoted by Al Jazeera in “Civilians in Raqqa under fire ‘from all sides’: Amnesty”, 24 August 2017, available at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/civilians-raqqa-fire-sides-amnesty-170824004428242.html 108 CJTF-OIR Commanding General Stephen Townsend in “Syria war: Why the battle for Raqqa is far from won”, BBC, 30 June 2017, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40451093 109
Ibid. 110
“Reports of civilian casualties in the war against ISIS are vastly inflated”, Foreign Policy, 15 September 2017, available at http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/15/reports-of-civilian-casualties-from-coalition-strikes-on-isis-are-vastly-inflated-lt-gen-townsend-cjtf-oir/ 111 “I would challenge anyone to find a more precise and careful campaign in the history of warfare on this planet”, CJTF-OIR Commanding General Stephen Townsend to the BBC, 30 June 2017, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40451093 112
“Reports of civilian casualties in the war against ISIS are vastly inflated”, Foreign Policy, 15 September 2017, available at http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/15/reports-of-civilian-casualties-from-coalition-strikes-on-isis-are-vastly-inflated-lt-gen-townsend-cjtf-oir/
“WAR OF ANNIHILATION” DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International 54 campaign, claiming that Coalition forces take “immense steps” to prevent civilian casualties. The General went on to blame IS for hiding amongst civilians, saying, “When the enemy uses civilians as human shields, it’s incredibly hard not to have civilian casualties. Our procedures are sound.” 113
populated urban settings. 114
On 8 January 2018, in response to a question by a Member of Parliament about “the number of civilian casualties in Syria as a result of UK air strikes”, the Ministry of Defence responded that: In carrying out air strikes, expert analysts routinely examine data from every UK strike to assess its effect… We co-operate fully with NGOs such as Airwars, who provide evidence they gather of civilian casualties. After detailed work on each case, we have been able to discount RAF involvement in any civilian casualties as a result of any of the strikes that have been brought to our attention. 115
These statements fail to recognise that it is the Coalition’s investigation methodology which is deficient, for it does not include visits to the sites of the alleged strikes or interviews with witnesses or survivors and their families. Even though since the end of September 2017 CJTF-OIR monthly casualty reports contain wording indicating an improvement in its methodology to include “site visits and interviews with witnesses, where possible”, 116
such provisions do not appear to have yet been implemented. Site visits are a crucial element of investigations as they provide the opportunity to examine munition impact and pattern of destruction at the concerned location and in surrounding areas, observation of munition fragments and other material which can contribute to understanding of the dynamics at the time of the strike. Interviews with survivors, witnesses and relatives of victims are equally crucial for understanding events leading up to and during the strikes. Furthermore, site visits are necessary to proactively discover information about strikes which may not been brought to the Coalition’s attention having not been reported by media or other sources. The Coalition relies upon a “preponderance of evidence” test in order to determine whether an allegation that it harmed a civilian is credible or not. 117
The Coalition lists most allegations that it caused civilian casualties as “non-credible”. So far in 2018, for example, CJTF-OIR has published the results of 452 “reviews of facts and circumstances” into allegations that it caused civilian casualties mainly in 2017. 118
Of these, only 19 were deemed credible. 119 The remaining 433 were deemed “non-credible”; 120 a rate of 95.62%. The low credibility count suggests that some, possibly many, allegations may be dismissed before all necessary efforts are deployed to investigate them. Undercounting civilian casualties could result in underestimating potential harm to civilians in future Coalition operations, as civilian casualty mitigation procedures require military units to learn from their civilian casualty assessments and incorporate that learning into planning future operations. 121
During its field investigation in Raqqa, Amnesty International delegates visited dozens of Coalition strike sites in every district in the city and spoke to more than 100 residents who had survived or witnessed Coalition strikes. None of them had been interviewed or contacted by Coalition forces’ investigators, neither in Raqqa nor while they were in camps for displaced persons prior to their return to the city; nor were any of them
113 Lieutenant General Paul E. Funk II quoted in “Fort Hood General leading ISIS fight says caliphate defeated in Iraq”, Statesman, 28 December 2017, available at https://www.statesman.com/news/local-military/fort-hood-general-leading-isis-fight-says-caliphate-defeated- iraq/OBA9pIVKjsXqYPz9bEYnzK/ 114 The UK has a long history of denying causing civilian deaths with its air strikes against the co-called IS. Back in 2016 it released information following a Freedom of Information request, claiming to have killed almost 1,000 IS fighters in Iraq and Syria in 1,000 strikes carried out between September 2014 and March 2016 and not a single civilian. See, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home- news/iraq-syria-air-strikes-civilians-casualties-killed-isis-daesh-islamic-state-air-wars-a7008276.html 115
Syria: Military Intervention: Written question – 120695, UK Parliament website, available at https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2017-12-20/120695/ On 2 May 2018, the UK government for the first time admitted that one of its air strikes in March 2018 in Syria had caused one civilian casualty. See, “Syria war: MoD admits civilian died in RAF strike on Islamic State”, BBC, 2 May 2018, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43977394 116
CJTF-OIR, “Monthly civilian casualty report”, 29 September 2017, available at http://www.inherentresolve.mil/News/News- Releases/News-Article-View/Article/1329201/cjtf-oir-monthly-civilian-casualty-report/ 117 US Airforce Major Shane Huff in his capacity as Media Operations Officer at CENTCOM Communications Interrogation Directorate, in an email entitled “Inquiry regarding DoD investigations into allegations of civilian harm in Iraq”, 2 November 2016, available at https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4416019-Assessments.html “Legal implications of the defect in Pentagon’s civilian casualty assessments”, by Ryan Goodman, 26 April 2018, Just Security, available at https://www.justsecurity.org/55397/legal-implications-defect-pentagons-civilian-casualty-assessments/ 118 See “CJTF-OIR Monthly Reports” containing each month a list of allegations deemed “non-credible” and available at http://www.inherentresolve.mil/News/News-Releases/ 119
Ibid – Six allegations were deemed credible in January 2018, four in February 2018, six in March 2018 and three in April 2018. 120
Ibid – 207 allegations were deemed non-credible in January 2018, 102 in February 2018, 78 in March 2018 and 46 in April 2018. 121
For example, see the US Army’s “Civilian casualty mitigation cycle”, July 2012, available at https://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/attp/attp3-37- 31.pdf|||ATTP%203-37.31:%20Civilian%20Casualty%20Mitigation
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