US military could do more to prevent civilians casualties in Syria’s Raqqa 

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – According to a study released by the Rand Corporation on March 31, based on a Pentagon-commissioned report, the US military could have done more efforts to prevent civilians casualties during the battles against the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) in the city of Raqqa, northern Syria, in 2017.

The Rand Corporation study said many decisions by top US officials hindered noncombatants to escape the ISIS-held city during the battles and heavy bombardment, al-Monitor reported. 

The refusal of engaging a large number of American ground troops and relying on the lightly armed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was one of the most fateful decisions, the study noted.

“Pushing ISIS out of Raqqa and into terrain that was more sparsely populated would have allowed more fighters to escape and potentially lengthened the campaign,” the report read.

It indicated that the risk of civilian harm in Raqqa and other more heavily populated areas “would clearly have been reduced”.

The report relied on different reliable sources such as the US-led Global Coalition, Amnesty, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

In 2019, the Amnesty International reported that the US-led Coalition killed more than 1,600 civilians during battles in Raqqa, most of which were killed in air and artillery strikes.

The study also found flaws with the coalition’s procedures for categorizing civilian casualties, and noted international NGOs had difficulty contacting the coalition to report such incidents.

The report argued that the US-war against ISIS in Raqqa was “War of annihilation” due to the lack of formal humanitarian escape corridors and ISIS willingness to use human shields, which formed the overall death toll.