AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

FACTS AND FIGURES

25 April 2019

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN THE US-LED

COALITION MILITARY OFFENSIVE IN RAQQA,
SYRIA
The US-led Coalition’s military offensive

 Lasted just over four months – from June to October 2017

 US, UK and French forces were involved in the air campaign to support
Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces on the ground
 US forces were responsible for all of the artillery and around 90% of
the air strikes
 The goal was to oust the armed group calling itself Islamic State from
its self-styled Syrian capital, Raqqa
 Thousands of air strikes were launched and one US military official
bragged about launching 30,000 artillery strikes – more than in any
conflict since the Viet Nam war
 This is equivalent to a strike every six minutes, for four months straight
 Unguided artillery has a margin of error of over 100 metres – to the
point of being indiscriminate in an urban conflict where civilians are
present

The level of destruction

 After the offensive, more than 80% of Raqqa was uninhabitable

(source: UN)
 More than 11,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed
 The aerial bombardment destroyed key infrastructure, including bridges
spanning the Euphrates River
 Many dead residents were buried in makeshift grave sites, either in
neighbourhood gardens or in public parks. Some of these included mass
graves alongside dead IS fighters.

Investigation by Amnesty

 Lasted 18+ months

  Included around two months of on-the-ground field investigations in
Raqqa since the battle was still raging
 Amnesty visited 200 strike sites and spoke to 400+ witnesses and
survivors
 In a Pentagon press conference, a US-led Coalition spokesperson stated it
lacked “the manpower” to conduct field investigations in Raqqa
 Combined with extensive remote research – including the “Strike Tracker”
project and the Digital Verification Corps’ open-source investigation –
Amnesty and Airwars believe ours is the most comprehensive
investigation into civilian casualties in modern conflict

Strike Tracker

 More than 3,000 digital activists in 124 countries took part,

 They analyzed a total of more than 2 million satellite image frames
 They worked for a combined total of 4,100 hours – the equivalent of someone
working full-time for 2.5 years

Civilian casualties

 Amnesty and Airwars found a total of more than 1,600 civilians killed
by the US-led Coalition offensive in Raqqa
 The organizations have gathered names for more than 1,000 of the
victims
 Amnesty has directly verified 641 of those on the ground in Raqqa, and there
are very strong multiple source reports for the rest
 The Coalition has admitted responsibility for killing 159 civilians in Raqqa –
less than 10% of the total reported