Civilian Casualties

(1 man)

2–3

US-led Coalition, Syrian Democratic Forces

LOCATION

الشحيل, Al Shahil, Deir Ezzor, Syria

At least three men were killed and civilians were injured in a Coalition and Syrian Democratic Forces operation in the city of Al Shahil on September 26, 2021. Sources were conflicted as to whether those killed were civilians or members or ISIS, with one source reporting on civilian injuries. According to Euphrates Post, Syrian Democratic

Summary

0 – 3

(0–3 men)

1–2

Syrian Democratic Forces, US-led Coalition

Suspected target

ISIS

0–3

خربة الجاموس, Kharbet Al Janous, Al Hassakah, Syria

Five more Afghan strikes the US should apologise for

Published

September 24, 2021

Written by

Adam Gnych and Jessica Purkiss

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Contrition over Kabul strike must prompt further review of hundreds more events in which civilians were likely killed by US actions.

The final drone strike of the US occupation of Afghanistan killed up to 10 civilians, including seven children. That is not our opinion, but the determination of the US military.

On September 17th, after separate investigations by The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, a contrite head of CENTCOM, the part of the US military responsible for Afghanistan, admitted a “tragic” mistake. General McKenzie said the August 29th attack, initially described as a “righteous strike” against the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, had in fact killed 43-year-old aid worker Zemari Ahmadi and his family outside their home.

The apology won’t ease the suffering of those remaining family members, but it does at least open the door to the possibility of solatia payments to support them through the coming years. For the US, this incident ought to lead to some soul searching – with a fresh investigation launched into the failings of the initial probe.

Yet this contrition has been the exception rather than the rule in US operations in Afghanistan, with thousands of civilians credibly reported killed by US actions since 2001. The former head of NATO’s civilian casualty assessment team now says that “civilian casualty investigations in Afghanistan were strongly weighted against finding sufficient evidence for an allegation to be recorded as credible.”

There are many specific reasons why this final incident garnered more attention. It occurred in relatively easily accessible Kabul, at a time when many foreign journalists were visiting the city to cover the American withdrawal. Mr Ahmadi also worked for a US aid organisation that was willing to vouch for his reputation. All these factors led to intense pressure on the US military to respond quickly to the allegations it had killed civilians.

Sadly the vast majority of civilians killed by the US in Afghanistan never receive the same attention, or apologies.

A recent Airwars investigation found that overall, at least 22,000 civilians have likely been killed by US airstrikes during the ‘war on terror’ since 2001. At least 4,815 of these fatalities were in Afghanistan, though that number could be far higher. Only a fraction of these events have received official US recognition. Many families can wait months, or even years, for a reply. Most never hear back.

Major General Chris Donahue, the final US soldier in Afghanistan, leaves on August 30 (U.S. Army photo)

Amnesty International, calling for a fuller investigation into the Kabul strike, pointed out that “many similar strikes in Syria, Iraq, and Somalia have happened out of the spotlight, and the US continues to deny responsibility while devastated families suffer in silence.”

Here are just five examples of Afghan families still waiting for justice after losing family members to alleged US strikes in recent years. Many were originally investigated by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s Drone Warfare project, which ended in 2020 and whose archives are now curated by Airwars.

1. The Khans

In the early hours of March 9th 2019, Dr Nazargul Khan and his children were sleeping in their village in the Hesarak district, Nangarhar province – around 30 miles east of Kabul. Suddenly their home was ripped apart.

“The first bomb that was dropped was on my cousins who were sleeping in the next room,” Waheeda, 14, Nazargul’s oldest child, told Al Jazeera. “My father got up and went to their room but by the time they reached the room another bomb was dropped on my father, sisters, and mother.”

In total twelve members of the Khan family, including Nazargul and nine children, died that night in an alleged US strike.

Despite the testimony of Sherif and Waheeda, the US has not accepted causing the civilian harm. Instead, it designated the allegations “possible” and closed the investigation, leaving the survivors with no clear answers and no route to seek compensation or justice.

2. The Ishaqzai family

On November 24th 2018, the village of Loy Manda, ten miles outside of Lashkar Gah in southwestern Afghanistan, found itself on the frontline as Afghan government forces – backed up by their American allies – battled the Taliban.

As a column of Afghan and US Special Operations forces moved into the area, the Ishaqzai family huddled in their home. In an apparent attempt to hit Taliban fighters moving through the area, the US called in an airstrike, witnesses told The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. A father and son were killed and 13 members of the extended family injured, 10 of them children.

The US military later admitted that four civilians were injured in a strike in Helmand on this day in their annual report on civilian casualties. This is believed to be a significant undercount.

3. The Mubarez family

On the evening of September 22rd 2018, the inhabitants of the village of Mullah Hafiz, in Wardak province, were alerted to the sound of an operation in progress. Explosions ripped through the town as soldiers swept in for a raid on a Taliban prison.

Masih Ur-Rahman Mubarez was in Iran for work but his wife and all their seven children, alongside four young cousins, were killed in an airstrike. His youngest was just four years old.

“Our life was full of love,” Masih told The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

Image compiled by Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Clockwise from top left: Masih’s children Mohammad Elyas (8), Mohammad Wiqad (10), Fahim (5), Samina (7) and Mohammad Fayaz (4) all died in the strike, alongside their two elder sisters, Anisa (14), and Safia (12), and their mother Amina (32). (Fahim appears in both photos in the bottom row)

Initially the US repeatedly denied it had bombed Masih’s house, or even that any airstrike had taken place in the area. Later after The New York Times and researchers from TBIJ investigated further, the military admitted that it did conduct a strike in that location, saying it was “possible, although unlikely, civilians died.”

4. The Rais family

On the 28th of September 2016, 15 Afghans were killed in a single US drone strike in the province of Nangarhar, east of the capital of Kabul, according to the United Nations.

The US said it struck militants from the so-called Islamic State, describing it as a “counter-terrorism” strike. The UN said it had hit a gathering of residents welcoming a tribal elder returning from religious pilgrimage to Mecca. The UN did acknowledge reports that IS fighters were among the dead but said the majority were civilians including “students and a teacher, as well as members of families considered to be pro-government.” Haji Rais, the owner of the house hit, lost his son in the strike.

The day after the strike, the then-spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Charles, told The New York Times the allegations of civilian casualties were being investigated. “We continue to work with Afghan authorities to determine if there is cause for additional investigation,” he said.

5. Abdul Hamid Alkoazay & Abdul Rahim

In the early hours of the morning on May 24th 2019, an alleged US airstrike struck a building in Shib Koh district, Farah province, which runs along the border with Iran in western Afghanistan.

Abdul Hamid and Abdul Rahim were colleagues and had decided to stay the night at the offices of the emergency aid NGO they worked for. At approximately 1:20 am the building was leveled, with the two men killed instantly.

Abdul Rahim was 22 and had married just a month before his death. He worked as a supervisor at the charity, which he had joined relatively recently. One colleague said of him: “He was such a softly spoken person. He was a very good man with the best manners.”

The US military ultimately deemed the allegations of civilian harm “possible”, a phrasing neither accepting nor denying responsibility.

‘Hand-wringing’

CENTCOM, the part of the US military responsible for Afghanistan, had not replied at publication of this article to requests from Airwars seeking updates about its investigations into these five cases.

In the years before the final American soldier left Afghanistan last month, the US had relied increasingly on airpower. In 2015 there were about 500 US strikes. By 2019 that figure was more than 7,000. That year the United Nations documented the highest number of civilian fatalities from airstrikes since they began recording in 2009, most of them by US aircraft.

However, the US military officially accepted only a fifth of the civilian deaths attributed to it by the United Nations in 2019. Allegations are frequently determined as either “not credible” or “disproved”. Often this is based on the military not having sufficient information to fully investigate.

“There has been a lot of hand wringing and convenient blaming of intelligence over the past weeks,” says Mark Goodwin-Hudson, who in 2016 as a Lieutenant Colonel headed NATO’s Civilian Casualty Investigation Team in Afghanistan. “The killing highlights how shallow and misleading the assumption is that war can be conducted successfully from over the horizon. It doesn’t matter how accurate a modern weapon system is if the intelligence that underpins the strike is flawed.”

“In my experience civilian casualty investigations in Afghanistan were strongly weighted against finding sufficient evidence for an allegation to be recorded as credible,” Goodwin-Hudson added. “In some instances, investigators were denied access to mission critical intelligence, as it was deemed too sensitive to be read by anyone who was not already in the classified compartment that had planned, authorised and implemented the strike in question.”

For the families of those left behind, the mechanisms of getting official recognition that their loved ones were innocent was complicated enough before the US withdrawal. For many it may now be all but impossible.

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UK MoD for September 6, 2021 – September 6, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

September 6, 2021

Original Report

Web link

Summary

Monday 6 September – RAF Typhoons supported ground forces under fire from Daesh in Iraq.

Detail

Royal Air Force aircraft continue to fly armed reconnaissance missions as part of the Global Coalition Against Daesh’s work to support the Iraqi Security Forces keeping their country safe from Daesh terrorism.

On Monday 6 September, Iraqi ground forces conducting security operations approximately thirty miles south of Erbil came under fire from a Daesh position in an area of heavy vegetation.

Two RAF Typhoon FGR4s responded to a call for assistance and, working closely with the ground forces to ensure no risks were posed to either them or any civilians, used a single Paveway IV guided bomb to successfully eliminate the threat.

Pentagon revelations increase pressure on European militaries to acknowledge killing civilians

Published

August 18, 2021

Written by

Joe Dyke

Web link

Focus will now turn to whether UK, France and Belgium will finally admit culpability

When the Department of Defense withdrew a key part of its annual report on civilian harm earlier this month, it all but confirmed something long suspected – that France, Britain and Belgium know they likely killed civilians in Iraq and Syria in specific events, but refuse publicly to accept it.

The original Pentagon report to Congress, released on May 28th, initially claimed responsibility for the deaths of 50 civilians in eleven airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2018.

After Airwars pointed out significant errors, the DoD withdrew and reissued the report along with an addendum, removing nine of the eleven incidents in which civilians died. This amounted to the Pentagon’s effective confirmation that those strikes were carried out by its allies, including the UK, France and Belgium.

Of these nine incidents, two were in fact the same event – seemingly a clerical error. Two more have been publicly claimed already by Australia, which has accepted responsibility for the deaths.

That leaves six events in which the Coalition’s own investigators concluded that 18 civilians had died.

What are the six strikes?

Three of them were British airstrikes. We knew this before due to in-depth reporting by Airwars and the BBC but the Pentagon’s withdrawal of the data all but confirms it.

In the most deadly individual case, on August 13th 2017, 12 civilians were killed, including a young girl, in an airstrike targeting an ISIS mortar system. A further six were injured. In February 2019 the US-led Coalition accepted that civilians were killed and the UK later confirmed it was a British strike – yet without accepting anyone died.

In a second case, the Coalition publicly confirmed the deaths of two civilians in a strike near the Iraqi city of Mosul on January 9th 2017. Again the UK confirmed it was a British strike but without accepting that civilians were killed. This contradicted a Coalition whistleblower, who earlier told the BBC that civilians had likely died in the British attack.

The third British incident occurred in Bahrah in eastern Syria on January 20th 2018. The Coalition’s military assessors admitted the death of one civilian. The BBC and Airwars published an investigation showing it was a British strike and the UK accepted this, but again refused to accept responsibility for any civilian harm.

The reason for the gap between the Coalition and British statements is that London applies a different – and critics would say unrealistic – standard for assessing civilian harm. Whereas the Coalition and the US assess whether they caused civilian harm on the ‘balance of probabilities’, the UK demands overwhelming evidence – described as ‘hard facts.’ In the context of an airstrike from thousands of feet and with no Coalition civilian casualty investigation forces on the ground, such overwhelming proof is near impossible to come by.

To date, the UK has accepted just one civilian death in Iraq and Syria, despite 8,000 declared flight sorties over seven years.

Gavin Crowden, Executive Director of Every Casualty Counts, said that when it came to civilian harm, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was pretending the “absence of evidence is evidence of absence.”

“The Pentagon has shattered the MoD’s already implausible claim that British forces have caused only one civilian death across Iraq and Syria. This is statistically almost impossible.”

“The [Chilcot] Report of the Iraq Inquiry made clear that the MoD had failed to account for civilian casualties following the invasion in 2003. Almost twenty years on, the MoD is still failing to take even basic steps to identify and record harm caused to civilians.”

French and Belgian strikes

The other three incidents the Pentagon insists were not US actions are believed to be either Belgian or French strikes.

On February 27th 2017 a Coalition strike on an ISIS vehicle near the Iraqi-Syrian border killed at least one civilian and injured another. Local sources said the death toll could have been as high as three. The Coalition accepted causing the harm, and a senior Belgian government official unofficially informed Airwars that the strike was Belgian, though the government has never publicly confirmed this.

On March 21st 2017 a civilian was killed in a Coalition strike in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Again a senior government official unofficially informed Airwars that the strike was Belgian, though the government has never publicly confirmed this.

The final incident, which took place on February 8th 2018, killed one civilian near Al-Bahrah village in Syria. Airwars identified it as a likely French strike, though Paris has always publicly refused to comment.

To date, neither France nor Belgium has publicly accepted killing any civilians in years of bombing Iraq and Syria.

Marc Garlasco, a military advisor for PAX and a former US senior Department of Defense intelligence analyst, said the Pentagon errors would increase pressure on European militaries to stop hiding behind the anonymity of the Coalition.

In 2015 a devastating strike in the town of Hawijah in Iraq led to the deaths of more than 70 civilians. The Coalition eventually accepted responsibility, but no member state did. It was only in 2019, after investigative reporting, that the Dutch government finally admitted responsibility.

“It is time for European MoDs to stop hiding behind American statistics and take responsibility for the harm they cause and provide appropriate amends,” Garlasco said.

“One central issue for civilians is the problem coalition warfare causes for strike attribution, and therefore amends. Too often we have seen war victims unable to make claims or even get answers for why they were targeted because they just don’t know who dropped the bombs. It is unreasonable to put the onus of proof on the victim.”

He pointed out that in the wake of the Hawijah massacre the Dutch Ministry of Defence has opened a review of its civilian harm mitigation policies, working alongside organisations like PAX and Airwars.

“We see a real opportunity in the wake of the lessons we have learned by working with the Dutch MoD. There are now positive examples to follow if Belgium, France, the UK, and any other military intends to take civilian harm seriously.”

Every Casualty Count’s Gavin Crowden said the US civilian casualty monitoring process, though far from perfect, was a clear example for other countries to follow. So far the US has admitted killing more than 1,300 civilians in the war against ISIS.

“If European militaries claim they can fire smart missiles straight into the bedroom of a specific target, they should surely be able to compile basic data about where and when they have conducted operations that may have harmed civilians.”

“The US has shown that this is both logistically, militarily and politically possible. Therefore, we have to conclude that the obstacle among European militaries is simply a lack of will.”

Airwars asked the British, French and Belgian militaries for comment on the Pentagon’s report. None said they intended to review their earlier assessments of no civilian harm, in light of the DoD revelations.

▲ File footage: A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refuels a British Tornado fighter over Iraq, Dec. 22, 2015. Coalition forces fly daily missions in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Corey Hook/Released)

Pentagon wrongly admitted killing 21 civilians in Iraq and Syria slain by allies

Published

August 10, 2021

Written by

Joe Dyke

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published in partnership with

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Allied nations almost certainly killed them. So why did the Defense Department tell Congress that the US was responsible?

This article was originally published by The Intercept on August 5th 2021.

The Defense Department has been forced to withdraw a key part of an official report to Congress, after wrongly claiming responsibility for killing 21 civilians in Iraq and Syria who were actually slain by close US allies.

The Pentagon was alerted to the mistake in June by Airwars, which had previously documented most of the strikes as being carried out by other partner nations in the US-led Coalition against the Islamic State, including the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

After reviewing the findings, the Defense Department finally admitted the error on August 5th.

“This was an oversight in preparing data for the report,” Pentagon spokesperson Mike Howard said, without giving further details on how the error had occurred. “We regret the mistake.”

The revelations will add to growing concern over the Pentagon’s civilian harm policies, after senior Democrats recently accused the Pentagon of underestimating the number of civilians killed in its latest annual report to Congress and criticized the US military’s failure to pay out a single dollar in compensation to victims’ families during 2020.

“You have to wonder what is going on at the Defense Department and [U.S. Central Command] that they can’t even get right this basic obligation to report civilian harm to Congress and to the public accurately and reliably,” Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Intercept. “This only compounds our concerns about underlying issues such as investigations into civilian harm, in which DOD does not even talk to surviving family members for information.”

“Only US casualties”

The Department of Defense’s latest annual report documenting civilians killed and injured by US actions globally was released on May 28th. The report, in which the Defense Department must inform Congress of all officially recognized civilian harm caused by the US military, has been a legal requirement since 2018.

In the latest report, the Pentagon admitted to killing 23 civilians worldwide during 2020, though monitors such as the United Nations in Afghanistan have shown the real figure is likely many times higher.

The report also incorrectly acknowledged responsibility for 50 historical civilian deaths in 11 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria between January 2017 and February 2018. The Pentagon at first said the incidents had “inadvertently” not been included in reports in previous years, but most were in fact carried out by allied nations.

While the campaign against ISIS was fought by a coalition of mostly Western nations, the report explicitly stated that it “only lists civilian casualties attributed to the use of U.S.-operated weapons,” meaning no strikes conducted by allied aircraft should have been included.

The Intercept and Airwars cross-checked these incidents against public records and found that of the 11, nine were not carried out by the US at all.

The May Defense Department report to Congress claimed responsibility for the deaths of 50 additional civilians in Iraq and Syria in 2017-2018, of whom only 28 were actually killed by US strikes. Source: US Department of Defense, May 2021.

Most of those incidents had been highlighted in a major investigation last year by Airwars, the BBC, Libération, De Morgen and RTL Netherlands, which concluded that European countries were systematically failing to accept causing civilian harm, even when U.S. military assessors declared otherwise.

The addendum released by the Defense Department on August 5th removed nine of the 11 incidents in which the US acknowledged killing civilians in its earlier report.

Two of the incidents for which the Pentagon claimed as US actions had, for example, already been admitted by the Australian Defence Force, which had taken full responsibility for killing the civilians.

In one of those airstrikes, two civilians were killed and two hurt in Mosul, Iraq, on May 3rd 2017. That event was publicly conceded by the ADF more than three years ago, with an official statement at the time saying: “On 3 May 2017, one Australian aircraft conducted an airstrike in support of Iraqi Security Forces who were under direct fire from enemy fighters in West Mosul. … Based on a review of information now available, it is possible that civilian casualties may have occurred as a result of this strike.”

The UK had explicitly claimed responsibility for carrying out between three and four further strikes on the list, and a senior Belgian official had unofficially acknowledged that country’s responsibility for two other attacks.

Among the British incidents was the killing of 12 civilians in the Syrian city of Raqqa on August 13th 2017. The Coalition officially confirmed it had killed the civilians while targeting an ISIS mortar system; the UK later admitted to carrying out the strike, saying Royal Air Force fighter jets targeted “a mortar team in a building at the location given” during clashes between ISIS and Western-backed Kurdish forces.

Among the victims locally named that day were Walid Awad Al Qus and his young daughter Limar.

A ninth event, which killed one civilian in Al Bahrah in Syria in February 2018, was found by Airwars and Libération to have likely been attributable to the French military. Despite the findings, neither the UK, Belgium, nor France has publicly admitted to killing civilians in any of these strikes.

Airwars highlighted the errors to the US Defense Department in early June; the Pentagon then took two months to send an official correction to the report to Congress. That addendum offered no detailed explanation for the mistake.

“The text and table in the report provided in May 2021 … should be omitted and replaced because only two of the eleven incidents on the original table were ‘attributed to the use of U.S.-operated weapons,’” the text of the addendum states.

CENTCOM under scrutiny

The US arguably has the world’s most advanced mechanisms for monitoring the civilian harm caused by its own military actions across the globe.

During the seven-year campaign against ISIS, the US military has admitted killing more than 1,300 civilians. While monitors like Airwars put the real figure far higher, other militaries barely accept any responsibility for civilian harm: France has not admitted to killing a single civilian, and the UK has acknowledged responsibility for just one civilian death since 2014.

The great majority of deaths from US military actions occur within US Central Command’s area of responsibility, which includes Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen. In recent years, CENTCOM has faced rising concerns about poor management of its civilian harm monitoring and reporting processes.

CENTCOM declined to comment on whether the error in the recent report to Congress had originated with its own personnel, referring questions back to the Department of Defense.

More forgetfulness on Yemen

While publicly claiming responsibility for the deaths of civilians it didn’t in fact harm, CENTCOM has also once again forgotten some of those it did.

In November 2020, following a major Airwars study of US military actions in Yemen under President Donald Trump, CENTCOM officially admitted injuring two civilians during an airstrike in September 2017.

This was only the second time the US had ever publicly admitted specific civilian harm as a result of its airstrikes and raids in Yemen, which date back to 2002.

But that confirmed event was not included in the most recent report to Congress, and no explanation has been given for its omission.

This marked the second time in the past year that CENTCOM has apparently forgotten recent civilian harm it caused in Yemen. In November, it blamed an “administrative mistake” after saying only that it “may” have killed civilians during a botched raid in Yemen in January 2017. At the time, CENTCOM’s own commander, Gen. Joseph Votel, had told the US Senate he took personal responsibility for the deaths of “between four and 12” civilians in that attack.

Bonyan Gamal from the Yemeni human rights organization Mwatana said such errors are “painful for the families” of those injured or killed.

The recent Pentagon civilian harm report did however confirm one new case in Yemen after an investigation by Mwatana: The US admitted that it had targeted and killed an elderly Yemeni man in a 2019 airstrike. To date, no compensation has been paid or offered, and Gamal said the families of victims want justice.

“When we received the confirmation of civilian harm we contacted the family,” Gamal said. “When I spoke to them they asked ‘OK and now what?’ If there are no steps after an acknowledgment and not even an apology then what is the use for this?”

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International war against ISIS enters its eighth year

Published

August 2021

Written by

Joe Dyke

Web link

This article was originally published by The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft on August 8th 2021.

For the little media coverage it receives these days, you might be forgiven for believing the US-led coalition’s war in Syria and Iraq to be over. Osama Al-Hamid’s family knows better. Last month, the young boy died during reported fighting between Washington’s local Syrian allies and the Islamic State, in which US airstrikes hit the building he was in. Osama was the latest of thousands of alleged victims of coalition strikes.

August 8th marked seven years since the international coalition, led by the United States, began its concerted bombing campaign against the Islamic State, the terrorist group that by 2014 had seized much of northern Iraq and Syria. Since then, the coalition has declared 34,987 strikes against the Islamist group. Today, ISIS has been reduced from a de facto state controlling territory roughly the size of Britain on either side of the Iraqi-Syrian border, to a few disparate cells living in hiding and conducting occasional terror attacks.

The final piece of ISIS territory, the town of Baghouz in eastern Syria, was recaptured in April 2019. Since then, the intensity of the international campaign has dropped dramatically. Only 483 strikes, or less than two percent of the war’s total, have taken place in the last two years.

The civilian toll has also dropped sharply. Of the 1,417 civilians the Operation Inherent Resolve, or OIR Coalition, has officially admitted killing since 2014, only one has occurred since Baghouz fell.

Airwars puts the real figures of civilians killed by coalition strikes far higher — at between 8,317 and 13,190 likely fatalities between 2014 and today. And since April 2019, between 57 and 112 civilians have been likely killed, the watchdog believes.

Yet despite the near destruction of ISIS, the coalition remains in place, even as President Joe Biden’s administration withdraws from Afghanistan, and claims to be looking to end the “forever wars.” The United States retains an estimated 900 troops in Syria and a further 2,500 in Iraq. Other nations have also seemingly increased the intensity of their involvement in the campaign in recent months. Of the 44 confirmed OIR airstrikes against the Islamic State this year, more than half were French or British. Belgium, which resumed its own involvement in the war in October 2020, has provided no data on its own recent strikes.

No perfect exit

Seven years on, and with most of the war’s objectives seemingly achieved, what is to become of the anti-ISIS Coalition?

There are plenty of legitimate reasons for the Coalition to remain concerned.

Thousands of family members of ISIS militants, including those with British, French, and other citizenships, remain stuck in vast prisons in northern Syria, including the infamous Al-Hol camp near Hassakeh. With some countries unwilling to repatriate their nationals, violence in the camps remains a concern and there are fears the conditions could serve to radicalize a new generation of ISIS.

Outside the camps, fears of an ISIS resurgence remain, with periodic claims of their influence increasing. Recently, reports circulated that ISIS cells were forcing villagers in one part of eastern Syria to pay them money or face punishment. The US’s allies in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces, may not be able to cope without continued Western military support.

The Coalition is also yet to tackle its historic legacy, with rights groups and family members still seeking recompense for the thousands of civilians killed by its own actions. A recent report by Agence France Presse interviewed victims of the single worst disaster, when a U.S. strike killed more than 100 civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March 2017, and found they were still waiting for compensation.

So there are arguments that supporters of the Coalition mission may may make in favour of staying. But bear in mind that just because it is not in the media that doesn’t make it a cost-free exercise — either financially for the US and partners, or for Syrian and Iraqi civilians.

Data from Airwars’ annual report shows conflicts across the Middle East were less violent in 2020

Last month, Osama Al-Hamid — who looks perhaps four or five in the images posted online of him — tragically died. The exact circumstances of his death, in Kharbet Al Janous near Hassakeh in northern Syria on July 21st, are disputed. What is clear is that the United States carried out two airstrikes against alleged ISIS members while supporting the SDF. Somewhere along the way Hamid was killed. The Coalition’s spokesman said the child was being “held captive” by ISIS, but provided no evidence for the claim.

The intensity of Syria’s civil war more generally has dipped significantly in recent years. Airwars data shows that the number of civilians reported killed last year was roughly a third of the tally during 2019. And as the level of violence decreases, so the questions that leaders have to ask themselves shift.

With US, Russian, Turkish, Iranian and other forces seemingly becoming permanent fixtures in Syria, the potential for fatal miscalculation remains. And with no clear long-term strategy currently being articulated by the Biden administration, there remains a risk of another grinding conflict with no end in sight.

In Iraq, the US-led coalition often found itself fighting alongside Iranian-backed militias during the height of the campaign against ISIS. Yet since the Caliphate’s decline, some of those same groups have begun turning their ire on US bases, particularly as tensions with Tehran again escalate. In another echo of the earlier US-UK occupation of Iraq, Shia politicians from across the spectrum increasingly call on the Americans to leave.

When President Obama withdrew from Iraq in 2011 at the insistence of the Iraqi government, he later faced allegations that his purported hasty exit helped lead to the emergence of ISIS. Biden will be wary of repeating the mistake. But he is also perhaps learning from Afghanistan that there is no perfect time to end a war. Maintaining the coalition in perpetuity in Iraq and Syria, against an elusive foe, brings with it a risk of a new forever war.

▲ US soldiers make their way to an oil production facility to meet with its management team, in Syria, Oct. 27, 2020. (Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jensen Guillory)

French MoD for July 20, 2021 – July 26, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

July 26, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

L’opération CHAMMAL, volet français de l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE (OIR), se poursuit et les Armées restent résolument engagées dans leur lutte contre Daech, car l’organisation terroriste est entrée dans un combat en réseau, clandestin en dissimulant ses capacités.

La France apporte par ailleurs une action de conseil auprès des forces de sécurité irakiennes afin de contribuer à leur montée en puissance. Au sein du JOCAT (Joint Operations Command Advisory Team), structure conseillant le commandement interarmées des opérations irakien, plusieurs officiers français insérés apportent leurs compétences dans des domaines variés (renseignement, feux, opérations terrestres et aériennes).

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Transfert d’autorité entre les Senior national representative de niveau opératif (SNR-O)
Arrivé en juillet 2020 sur le théâtre syro-irakien, le général de brigade aérienne Dominique Tardif a assuré pendant un an la fonction de SNR-O pour l’opération CHAMMAL, participation française à la coalition internationale Inherent Resolve (OIR). Cette fonction comporte plusieurs responsabilités : commander les Français engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL, garantir le bon emploi des moyens français au Levant et assurer la fonction de directeur du Directorate of interagency and civilian environment (DICE), structure en charge de coordonner les opérations militaires avec les activités civiles au sein de l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE. Il a transféré ses responsabilités au général de brigade aérienne Vincent Coste. La cérémonie s’est déroulée sur le camp Arifjan au Koweït, en présence de madame Anne-Claire Legendre, ambassadrice de France au Koweït.

LOCATION

Between one and three people, including a child, were killed and others were injured in Coalition and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) strikes on Kharbet Al Janous on July 21, 2021. Various sources report that a child was killed in the operation while other sources report that between one and three members of ISIS were killed.

Summary

Airstrike, Counter-Terrorism Action (Ground)

Heavy weapons and explosive munitions, Small arms and light weapons

1 – 3

(1 child)

Causes of injury / death

Suspected belligerent

Syrian Democratic Forces

Belligerents reported injured

0–2

ذيبان, Thiban, Deir Ezzor, Syria

French MoD for July 13, 2021 – July 19, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

July 19, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

L’opération CHAMMAL, volet français de l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE (OIR), se poursuit et les Armées restent résolument engagées dans leur lutte contre Daech, car l’organisation terroriste reste très présente menant un combat en réseau, clandestin en dissimulant ses capacités.

LOCATION

A man and his son were reportedly killed in a raid in Deir Ezzor’s Thiban town carried out by Syrian Democratic Forces with support of the US-led coalition at dawn on July 16, 2021. The dead were identified as Miteb Sherida Al-Ghadir and his son Ahmed. @Sada_AlSharqieh said they had been grazing their sheep at

Summary

(2 men)

US-led Coalition, Syrian Democratic Forces

Suspected target

ISIS

القائم, Al Qa’em, Deir Ezzor, Syria

LOCATION

A civilian was reportedly shot dead during a raid on the outskirts of Al-Zar village carried out by the US-led Coalition alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces, according to multiple sources, at dawn on July 15, 2021. A single source – Furat News – also reported that a girl was injured in the incident. The dead

Summary

(1 man)

Syrian Democratic Forces, US-led Coalition

French MoD for July 6, 2021 – July 12, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

July 12, 2021

Original Report

Web link

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Fin de mandat pour le National representative français au Qatar

Après six mois passés en tant que National representative (NR) des militaires français d’Al-Udeid, au Qatar, le colonel Fabien, de l’armée de l’Air et de l’Espace, a succédé au colonel Jean Charles.

Le rôle du NR est de s’assurer que les moyens aériens français engagés dans l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE (OIR) sont employés au niveau correspondant à leur pleine capacité et que les missions confiées respectent les directives d’emploi fixées par le niveau stratégique français. Enfin, il assure l’interface entre le directeur du Centre de commandement interallié pour les opérations aériennes (CAOC) et le commandement militaire français, notamment le Senior national representative de niveau opératif (SNR-O) et le Centre de planification et de conduite des opérations (CPCO).

Le Forbin en patrouille dans le canal de Syrie.
La Frégate de défense aérienne (FDA) Forbin, actuellement déployée en Méditerranée orientale (MEDOR), poursuit ses patrouilles dans le canal de Syrie afin de fournir en tout temps une appréciation autonome de la situation dans cette zone.

La mission de la FDA Forbin, dans une attitude impartiale constante, consiste à observer les mouvements et les interactions des différents acteurs de la zone MEDOR mais également de conduire des entraînements avec certains d’entre eux. Ainsi, le 8 juillet, un hélicoptère de l’armée de l’Air chypriote a effectué une séance d’entraînement au poser sur la plate-forme hélicoptère de la frégate française.

French MoD for June 30, 2021 – July 5, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

July 5, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

CHAMMAL : rencontre du général Tardif avec le directeur du Joint Crisis Coordination Centre du Kurdistan
Le 23 juin 2021, le général de brigade aérienne Dominique Tardif, Senior national representative de niveau opératif (SNR-O) de l’opération CHAMMAL, ainsi que le consul de France se sont entretenus avec Mohamed Hoshang, directeur du Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) du gouvernement régional du Kurdistan, à Erbil. Une occasion d’échanger sur la situation politique, sécuritaire et humanitaire au Kurdistan irakien.

CJTF–OIR for June 1, 2021 – June 30, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

June 30, 2021

Original Report

Web link

August 4, 2021
Release No. 20210804-01 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CJTF-OIR Strike Summary Report, June 2021 SOUTHWEST ASIA – Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve and its partners continue to target and pursue the enduring defeat of Daesh.

CJTF-OIR and partner forces have liberated nearly 110,000 square kilometers (42,471 square miles) from Daesh. As a result, 7.7 million people no longer live under Daesh oppression. CJTF-OIR remains committed to the enduring defeat of Daesh to improve conditions for peace and stability in the region and to protect all our homelands from the Daesh terrorist threat.

Strike Summary

Between June 1 and June 30 2021, CJTF-OIR conducted a total of 1 strikes consisting of 1 engagements in Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, CJTF-OIR conducted 0 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 0 engagements. In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 1 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 1 engagements.

This CJTF-OIR strike release contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary- wing, or remotely piloted aircraft, rocket propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery.

A strike, as defined in the CJTF-OIR release, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect in that location. For example, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone Daesh vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of Daesh-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined.

CJTF-OIR does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. The information used to compile the daily strike releases is based on ‘Z’ or Greenwich Mean Time.

#DefeatDaesh

Report Date

June 30, 2021

Report Summary

1 total strikes
1 in Syria

Original Report

Web link

August 4, 2021

Release No. 20210804-01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CJTF-OIR Strike Summary Report, June 2021

SOUTHWEST ASIA – Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve and its

partners continue to target and pursue the enduring defeat of Daesh. CJTF-OIR and partner forces have liberated nearly 110,000 square kilometers (42,471 square miles) from Daesh. As a result, 7.7 million people no longer live under Daesh oppression. CJTF-OIR remains committed to the enduring defeat of Daesh to improve conditions for peace and stability in the region and to protect all our homelands from the Daesh terrorist threat.

Strike Summary

June 30, 2021

Syria: 1 strikes

Between June 1 and June 30 2021, CJTF-OIR conducted a total of 1 strikes consisting of 1 engagements in Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, CJTF-OIR conducted 0 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 0 engagements.

In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 1 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 1 engagements.

This CJTF-OIR strike release contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary- wing, or remotely piloted aircraft, rocket propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery.
A strike, as defined in the CJTF-OIR release, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect in that location. For example, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone Daesh vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of Daesh-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined.

#DefeatDaesh

French MoD for June 23, 2021 – June 29, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

June 29, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Exercice nocturne d’éjection d’un pilote
Le 17 juin a eu lieu sur la Base aérienne projetée (BAP) au Levant un exercice de Personnel Recovery (PR) conjoint entre le détachement protection (DETPRO), le détachement chasse (DETCHASSE) et l’antenne médicale. Centré autour du thème de l’éjection d’un pilote de chasse de nuit, l’exercice a permis aux équipes de s’exercer dans plusieurs domaines d’intervention comme l’appui aérien, le sauvetage de personnel isolé et l’évacuation médicalisée.

LOCATION

القائم, Al Qa’em, Deir Ezzor, Syria

One child was reportedly killed and three other civilians, including women and children, were wounded in US airstrikes on the Al Qa’em area near the Syrian-Iraqi borders on June 28, 2021. Local sources also reported that between four and 11 militants, with at least four members of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization, were also killed. The

Summary

(1 child)

Heavy weapons and explosive munitions

Known belligerent

US Forces

Belligerents reported injured

4–11

الشنان, Al Shanan, Deir Ezzor, Syria

French MoD for June 16, 2021 – June 22, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

June 22, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Sorties air hebdomadaires (bilan du 16 au 22 juin inclus)
Les aéronefs français basés au Levant et aux Émirats arabes unis poursuivent leurs actions contre Daech, au sein de la Coalition. Cette semaine, les avions engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL ont réalisé 14 sorties aériennes.

French MoD for June 9, 2021 – June 15, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

June 15, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

L’opération CHAMMAL, volet français de l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE (OIR) se poursuit, et les Armées restent résolument engagées dans leur lutte contre Daech, car l’organisation terroriste est entrée dans un combat en réseau, clandestin en dissimulant ses capacités.

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Sorties air hebdomadaires (bilan du 9 au 15 juin inclus)
Les aéronefs français basés au Levant et aux Émirats arabes unis poursuivent leurs actions contre Daech, au sein de la Coalition. Cette semaine, les avions engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL ont réalisé 20 sorties aériennes.

French MoD for June 2, 2021 – June 8, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

June 8, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Participation d’un E3F AWACS à l’opération CHAMMAL

Du 27 mai au 8 juin, un avion E-3F AWACS a participé à l’opération CHAMMAL depuis la base aérienne d’Al Udeid au Qatar. Durant cet engagement, l’appareil français a mené 2 missions d’envergure au sein de la Coalition internationale rassemblant 80 pays et organisations engagés dans la lutte contre Daech.

L’E-3F AWACS est un système aérien de commandement et de conduite des opérations. Véritable démultiplicateur de forces, il est chargé de recueillir, identifier et analyser tout ce qui vol dans une zone donnée. Grâce à son endurance, l’AWACS est capable de réaliser des missions de 10 heures, dont la durée peut augmenter grâce à sa capacité à être ravitaillé en vol.

Sorties air hebdomadaires (bilan du 2 au 8 juin inclus)
Les aéronefs français basés au Levant et aux Émirats arabes unis poursuivent leurs actions contre Daech, au sein de la Coalition. Cette semaine, les avions engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL ont réalisé 14 sorties aériennes.

Pentagon annual report declares 85 civilian deaths in recent US actions

Published

June 2021

Written by

Airwars Staff

Web link

The Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on civilian deaths and injuries resulting from US military actions around the world has declared more than 100 recent casualties. Researchers and human rights groups, including Airwars, Amnesty International and UN monitors in Afghanistan, place the actual toll significantly higher.

For 2020 alone, the Department of Defence said that its forces had killed 23 civilians and injured a further 10 in Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq. An additional 63 historical deaths and 22 injuries were reported for the years 2017-2019, mostly in Syria and Yemen.

By contrast, the minimum public estimate of civilian deaths caused by US forces during 2020 across five conflict nations was 102 fatalities – almost five times higher than DoD admits.

Casualties from US actions in Afghanistan in particular appear to have been officially undercounted. While the Pentagon reports only 20 deaths and 5 injuries from its own actions last year, UNAMA – the respected UN agency in Afghanistan – says that international forces killed at least 89 civilians and injured a further 31. United States personnel made up the great majority of those foreign forces.

For Somalia, DoD declares only one civilian death from US actions last year – while Airwars and others suggest a minimum civilian toll of seven killed.

And for Iraq and Syria, while US forces declare only one death, local reporting indicates at least six civilians killed by US actions.

Only for Yemen is there agreement, with monitoring organisations and the DoD both indicating that there were no likely civilian deaths caused by US actions during the year.

Major decline in US actions

The 21-page Pentagon document, quietly released May 28th and entitled ‘Annual Report on Civilian Casualties In Connection With United States Military Operations in 2020,’ has been a requirement of US law since 2018.

The latest report captures the very significant fall in tempo of US military actions during the latter years of Donald Trump’s presidency. According to Airwars estimates, there were around 1,000 US strikes across four conflict countries during 2020 – down from approximately 3,500 strikes the previous year and a peak of 13,000 such US actions during 2016. Declared civilian deaths fell from 132 to 23 from 2019 to 2020.

The majority of civilian deaths declared by the Pentagon during 2020 were in Afghanistan – despite a major ceasefire between US forces and the Taliban for much of the year. According to the new DoD report, 20 civilians were killed and five injured in seven US actions, primarily airstrikes.

The seven civilian casualty events conceded in Afghanistan by the Pentagon for 2020

However the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) which has been recording extensive data on civilian harm from all parties to the fighting since 2009, placed the toll far higher. According to its own annual report for 2020 published earlier this year, “UNAMA attributed 120 civilian casualties (89 killed and 31 injured) to international military forces”.

While these casualties represented just one per cent of the overall reported civilian toll in Afghanistan for the year – with most civilians killed by the Taliban and Afghan forces – of concern was DoD’s major undercounting of its own impact on civilians – with UNAMA logging four and a half times more deaths primarily from US actions than those officially conceded by the Pentagon.

Reported civilian casualties from US actions against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria have remained low since the terror group’s defeat as a territorial entity in mid 2019. According to the Pentagon, just one civilian was killed by an action in Iraq, after US forces targeted Iranian linked militias at Karbala airport on March 13th 2020. Twenty three year old security guard Karrar Sabbar was killed in that US attack. However the additional reported deaths of two civilian policemen in the attack are not acknowledged by the US.

In Syria, Airwars estimates three to six likely civilian deaths from US actions during 2020, mainly during counterterrorism raids against ISIS remnants. None of these were conceded either.

In Somalia, between 7 and 13 civilians were likely killed by US actions during the year, according to Airwars monitoring of local communities. The US military itself concedes five injuries and one death, in two events in early 2020 near Jilib.

Only for Yemen did human rights organisations and DoD appear to agree, with both reporting no likely civilian deaths from US actions during the year.

US forces in Somalia killed one civilian and injured five others during 2020, according to official estimates

Public transparency

Despite continuing disparities between public and military estimates of civilian harm, the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress still represents a significant transparency breakthrough. Close ally France, for example, has refused to declare a single civilian fatality from almost seven years of air and artillery strikes in Iraq and Syria – and recently lashed out at the United Nations after a French airstrike struck a wedding party in Mali.

Later this year the Pentagon will also issue a major overhaul of its civilian casualty mitigation policies, which it has been reviewing in consultation with human rights organisations for several years. On May 25th, new Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr Colin Kahl confirmed in writing to NGOs that the new policy – known as a Department of Defense Instruction, or DoD-I – would be published by the Biden administration.

“We welcome the Pentagon’s publication to Congress of its latest annual civilian harm report, as well as confirmation that the DOD-I on civilian casualty mitigation will be published by the new administration,” noted Airwars director Chris Woods. “We remain concerned however that DoD estimates of civilian harm once again fall well below credible public estimates, and call on officials to review why such undercounts remain so common. Civilians surely deserve better.”

▲ Aftermath of a deadly US airstrike on Karbala Airport on March 13th, 2020 which the Pentagon admits killed a civilian.

French MoD for May 26, 2021 – June 1, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

June 1, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

L’opération CHAMMAL se poursuit, et les Armées restent résolument engagées dans leur lutte contre l’organisation terroriste Daech, qui opère une mue. Acculé, l’ennemi se transforme, change ses méthodes, ses moyens d’action. Depuis la chute de Baghouz, dernier bastion de Daech, l’organisation terroriste est entrée dans combat en réseau, clandestin, sans territoire, imprévisible.

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Sorties air hebdomadaires (bilan du 26 mai au 1er juin inclus)
Les aéronefs français basés au Levant et aux Émirats arabes unis et ceux du groupe aéronaval poursuivent leurs actions contre Daech, au sein de la Coalition. Cette semaine, les avions engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL ont réalisé 27 sorties aériennes.

CJTF–OIR for May 1, 2021 – May 31, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

May 31, 2021

Original Report

Web link

July 9, 2021
Release No. 20210709-01
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CJTF-OIR Strike Summary Report, May 2021
SOUTHWEST ASIA – Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve and its
partners continue to target and pursue the enduring defeat of Daesh. CJTF-OIR and partner forces have liberated nearly 110,000 square kilometers (42,471 square miles) from Daesh. As a result, 7.7 million people no longer live under Daesh oppression. CJTF-OIR remains committed to the enduring defeat of Daesh to improve conditions for peace and stability in the region and to protect all our homelands from the Daesh terrorist threat.

Strike Summary
Between May 1 and May 31 2021, CJTF-OIR conducted a total of 6 strikes consisting of 18 engagements in Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, CJTF-OIR conducted 4 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 9 engagements. This resulted in 3 Enemy Killed in Action, 10 Bed Down Locations destroyed, and 2 Tunnels destroyed.

In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 2 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 9 engagements.

This CJTF-OIR strike release contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotarywing, or remotely piloted aircraft, rocket propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery. A strike, as defined in the CJTF-OIR release, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect in that location. For example, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone Daesh vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of Daesh-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined.

Report Date

May 31, 2021

Report Summary

6 total strikes
4 in Iraq
2 in Syria

Original Report

Web link

July 9, 2021

Release No. 20210709-01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CJTF-OIR Strike Summary Report, May 2021

SOUTHWEST ASIA – Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve and its

Strike Summary

May 31, 2021

Iraq: 4 strikes

Syria: 2 strikes

Between May 1 and May 31 2021, CJTF-OIR conducted a total of 6 strikes consisting of 18 engagements in Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, CJTF-OIR conducted 4 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 9 engagements. This resulted in 3 Enemy Killed in Action, 10 Bed Down Locations destroyed, and 2 Tunnels destroyed.

In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 2 strikes against Daesh targets consisting of 9 engagements.

#DefeatDaesh

French MoD for May 19, 2021 – May 25, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

May 25, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

L’A330 Phénix participe à CHAMMAL depuis la métropole
La semaine dernière, un avion multi-rôle A330 Phénix de l’armée de l’Air et de l’Espace a conduit à 3 reprises des vols pour l’opération CHAMMAL. Grâce à ses capacités intrinsèques, l’aéronef a été engagé directement depuis la Base aérienne (BA) 125 d’Istres, son lieu de stationnement. Le Phénix a ainsi effectué, mardi 18 mai, mercredi 19 mai et dimanche 23 mai, des missions d’une durée d’environ douze heures pour ravitailler en vol les aéronefs de la Coalition opérant au Levant dans la lutte contre Daech.

Sorties air hebdomadaires (bilan du 19 au 25 mai inclus)
Les aéronefs français basés au Levant et aux Émirats arabes unis et ceux du groupe aéronaval poursuivent leurs actions contre Daech, au sein de la Coalition. Cette semaine, les avions engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL ont réalisé 42 sorties aériennes et ont conduit une frappe le 20 mai.

French MoD for May 12, 2021 – May 18, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

May 18, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

10 000 heures de vol pour les Rafale C de la BAP au Levant

Depuis l’arrivée des Rafale sur la Base aérienne projeté (BAP) au Levant en août 2016, les Rafale C (monoplaces) ont franchi la barre symbolique des 10 000 heures de vol. Intégrés à l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE (OIR), les Rafale contribuent au pilier « appui » de l’opération CHAMMAL en effectuant des missions d’appui-feu et de renseignement. Avec plus de 10 000 heures de vol au compteur, les missions quotidiennes menées par les Rafale C participent pleinement à amoindrir le potentiel militaire de l’organisation terroriste Daech.

GAN : les vols reprennent depuis la Méditerranée orientale
Samedi 8 mai, aussitôt le canal de Suez franchi, les Rafale Marine et E-2C Hawkeye du Groupe aérien embarqué (GAé) ont repris les vols opérationnels au profit de l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE. Le Groupe aéronaval (GAN) entame ainsi une nouvelle séquence de la mission CLEMENCEAU 21 depuis la Méditerranée orientale où il intervient sur le théâtre irako-syrien contribuant à la lutte contre Daech au Levant.

Frappe au profit des Forces irakiennes
Le 20 mai dans la matinée, le porte-avions Charles de Gaulle, alors intégré à l’opération CHAMMAL depuis la Méditerranée orientale, a catapulté une patrouille armée de deux Rafale Marine pour une mission de soutien aux troupes de la Coalition. Arrivés sur le théâtre irakien, les aéronefs français ont été contactés sollicités par les forces irakiennes pour les appuyer dans leur combat contre Daech. Les Rafale Marine ont alors procédé à une frappe.

Sorties air hebdomadaires (bilan du 12 au 18 mai inclus)
Les aéronefs français basés au Levant et aux Émirats arabes unis et ceux du groupe aéronaval poursuivent leurs actions contre Daech, au sein de la Coalition. Cette semaine, les avions engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL ont réalisé 35 sorties aériennes.

French MoD for May 5, 2021 – May 11, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

May 11, 2021

Original Report

Web link

PROCHE MOYEN-ORIENT – CHAMMAL

SITUATION MILITAIRE DU THÉÂTRE

ACTIVITÉ DE LA FORCE

Mise en œuvre du GAé au profit de CHAMMAL depuis la mer Rouge : une première.

Le jeudi 6 mai 2021, dans le cadre de l’opération INHERENT RESOLVE, deux Rafale Marine et un E2-C Hawkeye du groupe aérien embarqué (GAé) ont été catapultés depuis la mer Rouge pour se rendre sur le théâtre irako-syrien.

Il s’agissait là d’une première pour le GAN, illustrant la liberté d’action du groupe aéronaval et sa capacité à agir depuis toutes les mers du globe.

Sorties air hebdomadaires (bilan du 05 au 11 mai inclus)
Les aéronefs français basés au Levant et aux Émirats arabes unis et ceux du groupe aéronaval poursuivent leurs actions contre Daech, au sein de la Coalition. Cette semaine, les avions engagés dans l’opération CHAMMAL ont réalisé 24 sorties aériennes.

UK MoD for May 11, 2021 – May 11, 2021

Original

Annotated

Report Date

May 11, 2021

Original Report

Web link

Tuesday 11 May – Typhoons struck Daesh terrorists engaged in a firefight with Iraqi forces in northern Iraq.

Detail

On Tuesday 11 May, Iraqi security forces encountered a group of Daesh terrorists in a strong defensive position some twenty five miles south west of Mosul. Coming under heavy small arms fire from the terrorists, the Iraqi troops requested air support from the global coalition, and a pair of Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s responded promptly. Liaising closely with the Iraqis, our aircraft attacked the Daesh terrorists with two Paveway IV precision guided bombs. The bombs hit the target and eliminated a number of the Daesh extremists. The Iraqi forces were then able to assault the position successfully and overwhelm the few remaining terrorists.

LOCATION

At least one man was killed in an alleged US-led Coalition drone strike in al-Shanan village in eastern Deir Ezzor on May 4, 2021. While the majority of sources that reported on the incident claimed that the man killed was no longer part of any armed groups, a spokesman for the Coalition identified him as

Summary

Airstrike, Drone Strike

0 – 1

(0–1 men)

Heavy weapons and explosive munitions

Suspected belligerent

0–1