Tag

#ISIS

4 incidents

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Betrayal of Kurdish Allies: U.S. Withdrawal Enabling Turkish Military Offensive in Northeast Syria

After a phone call with Erdoğan, Trump announced U.S. forces would step aside from the Turkish-Syrian border, describing the Syrian Kurds as 'no angels' and suggesting the region's conflicts were 'not our problem.' Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring within hours. The SDF — which had lost 11,000 fighters combating ISIS — was forced to divert troops from guarding ISIS prisoner facilities; hundreds of ISIS prisoners escaped.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Baghuz Strike: US Bombs Hit a Crowd of Mostly Women and Children in Syria; Military Hid It for Over Two Years (March 2019)

A US special-operations task force called in bombs on a crowd near Baghuz in 2019 that military investigators believed was mostly women and children. The strike was hidden from the public for more than two and a half years. The military later called it self-defence and justified; its count of civilian dead is far lower than its own investigators'.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Raqqa Bombardment: US-Led Coalition Strikes Killed More Than 1,600 Civilians in Four Months, Amnesty and Airwars Find (June–October 2017)

The US-led campaign to retake Raqqa from ISIS in 2017 used thousands of air strikes and some 30,000 unguided artillery rounds in a city full of trapped civilians. Amnesty and Airwars found more than 1,600 civilians reportedly killed; the coalition admits 159. Amnesty found prima facie evidence of unlawful attacks; no investigation has established individual criminal responsibility.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Mosul al-Jadida Airstrike: US Bomb Collapses Building on Sheltering Families, Killing At Least 105 Civilians (March 2017)

A single US bomb aimed at two ISIS snipers brought down a west Mosul building full of families, killing at least 105 civilians by the Pentagon's count. The US says hidden ISIS explosives caused the collapse and that it did not know civilians were inside. Amnesty found the coalition failed to take adequate precautions in a city where residents had been told not to flee.