UK watchdog Airwars accounted for at least 22,679 civilian victims of Washington’s so-called ‘war on terror’, while over 370,000 civilians were killed by all parties over two decades.
US drone and air strikes have killed over 22,000 civilians – possibly as many as 48,000 – across the Middle East and North Africa since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, according to UK watchdog Airwars.
The London-based civilian harm monitoring group released its report on Monday ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda that triggered what became known as the amorphous “war on terror”.
The analysis – based on the US military’s own claim that it conducted almost 100,000 air strikes (including drones) since 2001 – showed that at least 22,679 civilians were killed in US strikes across various theatres that comprised the war on terror: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Pakistan.
“The US has declared a minimum of 93,527 air strikes over the 20 years. The peak was with the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when the US declared 18,695 strike sorties,” the report said.
While Airwars’ minimum estimates put the death toll from the two decades at 22,679 – it’s a number that could be “potentially as high as 48,308” it added.
“It’s important to note that Airwars has examined only direct harm from US strikes since 9/11 – with many of our sources providing conservative casualty estimates. We are therefore looking at a fraction of the overall civilian harm in these countries.”
Dubbed the “forever wars,” the conflict was not clearly demarcated and spread out over three broad categories: the full invasion and occupation of Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2009); major bombing campaigns against Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq (2014-2021), Syria (2014-2021), and Libya (2016); targeted drone and air strike campaigns against militant and terror groups in Somalia (2007-2021), Yemen 2002-2021), Pakistan (2004-2018), and Libya (2014-2019).
The deadliest year for civilians was 2003, when a minimum of 5,529 deaths were reported, almost all during the invasion of Iraq. The next deadliest was 2017, when at least 4,931 civilians were likely killed, the majority from the US coalition bombings in Iraq and Syria.
However, 2017 would be the deadliest overall if going by its maximum estimates – 19,623 deaths – mostly connected to the bombing campaign against Daesh.
The US occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and the campaign against Daesh in Iraq and Syria accounted for 97 percent of civilian harm overall, the report highlighted.
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