Anti-Daesh strikes killed 4,000 civilians in Iraq, Syria

ANKARA

More than 4,000 civilians have been killed this year by "indiscriminate bombardments" -- ostensibly targeting the Daesh militant group -- carried out by Iraqi, Syrian, U.S.-led and Russian military aircraft in Iraq and Syria, according to a report released this week by two rights groups.

In a press release that accompanied the report’s release, the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights and the Minority Rights Group International -- both of which are based in the U.K. -- said that more than 2,800 civilians had been killed in Iraq by airstrikes carried out by the Iraqi military and the U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition.

Another 1,200 civilians, the two groups asserted, had been killed in Syria by what it described as "indiscriminate" airstrikes carried out by Russia and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The two groups also noted that civilian areas in both countries had been the frequent targets of "barrel bombs".

Barrel bombs are improvised containers packed with shrapnel and explosive material. Usually dropped from army helicopters, these low-cost munitions are believed to have killed thousands of people in Syria since the conflict began in early 2011.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, for its part, said Monday that Russian airstrikes in Syria had killed more than 1,500 people since they first began on Sept. 30.

Within the last two months, the rights group said that Russian airstrikes in Syria had killed 485 civilians -- including 117 children and 47 women -- along with 419 Daesh militants and 598 militants from the Nusra Front and other armed opposition groups.

Since Sept. 30, Russia -- an ally of the Assad regime -- has indiscriminately targeted civilian areas and humanitarian aid convoys and facilities in Syria, leading to numerous civilian casualties, according to U.S. officials.

While the Kremlin says its airstrikes in Syria are aimed at Daesh, some members of the western NATO alliance believe Russia is targeting moderate opposition groups opposed to Assad -- including some that are supported by Washington and Ankara.