The Uncounted
In an effort to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the US coalition has, to date, launched more than 27,500 air strikes. The munitions used can, if correctly targeted, hit a single vehicle or building, even a specific floor of a building, causing minimal damage to whatever surrounds it. The coalition has gone on record in the media declaring this the most accurate air campaign in history, noting that since August 2014, tens of thousands of ISIS fighters have been killed. According to investigative journalists Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal reporting in The New York Times, the tallies of its monthly summaries claim that just 466 civilians in Iraq have perished. The conclusion of Airwars and other NGOs who monitor the situation, puts the civilian death toll much higher. Khan and Gopal’s article also disputes the coalition figure and identifies the civilian death rate at 31 times what is officially acknowledged – that one in five strikes results in fatalities. This series of images shot in Northern Iraq show the aftermath of targeted air strikes and some of those it effected.
In an effort to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the US coalition has, to date, launched more than 27,500 air strikes. The munitions used can, if correctly targeted, hit a single vehicle or building, even a specific floor of a building, causing minimal damage to whatever surrounds it. The coalition has gone on record in the media declaring this the most accurate air campaign in history, noting that since August 2014, tens of thousands of ISIS fighters have been killed. According to investigative journalists Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal reporting in The New York Times, the tallies of its monthly summaries claim that just 466 civilians in Iraq have perished. The conclusion of Airwars and other NGOs who monitor the situation, puts the civilian death toll much higher. Khan and Gopal’s article also disputes the coalition figure and identifies the civilian death rate at 31 times what is officially acknowledged – that one in five strikes results in fatalities. This series of images shot in Northern Iraq show the aftermath of targeted air strikes and some of those it effected.
