Sixty-four civilians were killed and eight were injured in 24 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria over the past year, the U.S. military said Wednesday, based on newly completed investigations.

The latest totals bring the number of civilians killed in airstrikes in the fight against the Islamic State group to 119, with another 37 injured, according to U.S. Central Command.

Col. John Thomas, Central Command spokesman, said the investigations concluded that the proper military process was followed in each incident and precautions are always taken to try to avoid any civilian deaths.

Independent monitoring groups and activists, however, have repeatedly said that coalition and other airstrikes have killed hundreds of civilians.

The cases announced Wednesday include strikes from last November through September. And they range from one or two civilians killed to a March strike near Mosul, Iraq, that killed 10 civilians.

The latest report, however, doesn't include two air attacks in Syria in recent months that may have each killed dozens. According to residents and international aid groups, an airstrike in July near Manbij, Syria, may have killed at least 56 civilians and wounded many more.

And a U.S. brigadier general has been appointed to lead an investigation in a September airstrike near Deir el-Zour, Syria, that may have unintentionally killed dozens of Syrian government forces.

The U.S. has said that it monitored the target for two days and deemed it valid before launching the strike. But it was halted when Russian officials called the coalition to say the attack was hitting personnel and vehicles that were part of the Syrian military.

There have been lingering questions about reports that the troops or people on the ground were not wearing uniforms and that they were armed, leading to confusion about who they might be. Other theories suggest they may have been conscripted troops or prisoners of some sort, but there have been no solid findings yet on those reports.

As of Wednesday, U.S. Central Command has received 257 allegations of airstrikes causing possible civilian casualties, and has concluded that 76 of the reports were valid and required further investigation. Of those 76, four were duplicates.

To date, 65 of the investigations have been completed, and about half of them have been publicly disclosed. Seven allegations remain open.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military says 64 civilians were killed and eight were injured in 24 coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria over the past year, based on newly completed investigations.

U.S. Central Command says the latest totals bring the number of civilians killed in airstrikes in the fight against the Islamic State group to 119, with another 37 injured.

Col. John Thomas, Central Command spokesman, says the investigations concluded that the proper military process was followed in each incident and precautions are always taken to try to avoid any civilian deaths.

The cases announced Wednesday include strikes from last November through September. They don’t include a July airstrike that may have killed 56 civilians near Manbij, Syria, and a September attack that may have killed dozens of Syrian government forces.</s>On the outskirts of the village of Al Hud, members of the Iraqi Army visit the area where locals say Islamic State executed four or five Peshmerga in recent months. Another grave containing many more people was in the area but too dangerous to visit due to mines.

WASHINGTON — As many as 64 civilians have been killed in the last 12 months in airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday.

The civilian deaths and eight noncombatant injuries occurred in 24 strikes that were each independently investigated and deemed lawful, said Air Force Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for Central Command. Thirteen of the strikes occurred in Iraq and 11 in Syria.

Thomas said avoiding civilian casualties is a “key tenant” of the Operation Inherent Resolve campaign, and he emphasized the coalition believes it’s possible that less than 64 noncombatants were killed in the strikes.

“We have teams who work full time to prevent unintended civilian casualties,” he said. “… Sometimes civilians bear the brunt of military action, but we do all we can to minimize those occurrences even at the cost of sometimes missing the chance to strike valid targets in real time.”

Thomas said the military takes all reports of civilian casualties seriously. He said coalition investigations used internal records alongside reports from news outlets, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. government department and agencies.

Some outside organizations, including Amnesty International, have accused the U.S. military of inadequate investigations into reports of civilian deaths. In October, Amnesty International accused Operation Inherent Resolve airstrikes in Syria alone of killing more than 300 civilian between September 2014 and June 2016.

Pentagon and Central Command officials have disputed those numbers and touted the military’s commitment to transparency when it is accused of killing civilians.

Here are the airstrikes that Central Command said likely killed civilians since November 2015:
• Nov. 20, 2015, near Dayr-az-Zawr in Syria, against a tactical unit. Five civilians killed and three injured.
• March 5, near Mosul in Iraq, against a weapons production facility. Ten civilians killed.
• March 24, near Qayara in Iraq, against an unspecified militant target. One civilian killed.
• April 1, near Raqqa in Syria, against a tactical unit. Three civilians killed.
• April 9, near Mosul, against a tactical unit. One civilian killed.
• April 30, near Mosul, against Islamic State group military leadership. Five civilians killed.
• May 25, near Mosul, against a tactical unit. One civilian killed.
• May 26, near Mosul, against enemy fighters. One civilian killed.
• May 29, near Mosul, against a weapons system. Six civilians killed.
• June 15, near Kisik in Iraq, against a weapons storage facility. Six civilians killed.
• June 15, near Mosul, against unspecified targets. Two civilians injured.
• June 21, near Raqqa, against a headquarters building. Three civilians killed.
• June 23, near Raqqa, against a militant-held building. Four civilians killed.
• June 26, near Mosul, against an unspecified enemy target. One individual injured.
• June 26, near Mosul, against an unspecified enemy target. One individual injured.
• July 3, near Manbij in Syria, against a fighting position. Four civilians killed.
• July 10, near Manbij, against an unspecified enemy target. Two civilians killed.
• July 14, near Qayara, during a strike on an enemy-held building. One civilian killed.
• July 31, near Manbij, against enemy fighters. One civilian injured.
• Aug. 17, near Raqqa, against an enemy target. Two civilians killed.
• Aug. 20, near Manbij, against an artillery firing position. One civilian killed.
• Aug. 31, near Ramadi in Iraq, against an unspecified enemy target. Two civilians killed.
• Sept. 7, near Dayr-az-Zawr, against an oil collection point. One civilian killed.
• Sept. 10, near Raqqa, against an unspecified enemy target. Five civilians killed.</s>BEIRUT - Air strikes and government artillery killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in the largely rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Russian or Syrian government warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing seven children and two pregnant women.

Warplanes and government artillery also killed 11 people in the village of Baarbo in the southwest of the province, the monitor reported.

"The Russian Defence Ministry has denied information reported in multiple foreign media outlets about alleged strikes by the Russian Air Force in the region of Khan Sheikhoun near the city of Idlib," Russia's TASS news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

"Russian jets did not fly in the area on Nov. 8 and no missile strikes were carried out."

Syria's war pits President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, against an array of mostly Sunni rebel groups, including some backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.

Idlib contains the largest populated area of Syria controlled by rebels - including nationalist groups under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Islamist fighters including the former al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. (Reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut and Jack Stubbs in Moscow; editing by Andrew Roche)</s>AIN ISSA: US-backed forces pressed offensives Wednesday on the Islamic State group’s strongholds in Syria and Iraq, as an air strike by the American-led coalition reportedly killed 20 civilians near the Syrian city of Raqa.

Supported by coalition air raids, Iraqi forces have pushed into IS’s Mosul stronghold and a Kurdish-Arab militia alliance has been advancing on the jihadists’ de facto Syrian capital Raqa.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a coalition strike overnight had hit the IS-held village of Al-Heisha, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Raqa.

Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Britain-based monitoring group, said nine women and two children were among the 20 civilians killed and that 32 others had been wounded.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the militia alliance which Washington is supporting in the assault, denied the civilian deaths.

“There is no such thing, and any such claims are IS news,” SDF spokeswoman Jihan Sheikh Ahmed told AFP.

Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the coalition, told AFP it appeared there had been strikes in the area.

“After an initial assessment… the coalition confirms it did conduct strikes in the area described in the allegation,” he said.

“However, more specific information is needed to conclusively determine responsibility” for civilian casualties.

The Observatory said the latest deaths brought the number of civilians killed since US-led air strikes in Syria began in September 2014 to 680, including 169 children.

Some 200 families had fled Al-Heisha, according to an SDF official.

“Daesh fighters brought heavy weapons to our village and stayed among us so that if there were strikes they would hit us,” 45-year-old Saada al-Aboud said after fleeing the town, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

“They wouldn’t let us leave. We had to escape by running out into the fields, with our children and old people. What else could we do? We left everything behind.”

The SDF launched the drive towards Raqa on Saturday, upping pressure on the jihadists three weeks after Iraqi forces began their assault on Mosul.

Raqa and Mosul are the last major cities in Syria and Iraq under IS control, after the jihadists suffered losses that greatly reduced the size of the self-styled “caliphate” they declared in mid-2014 following their seizure of large parts of both countries.

The US-led coalition, which launched its air campaign against IS two years ago, hopes that driving the group from the two cities will deal it a knockout blow.

The SDF has been pushing south from areas near the Turkish border towards Raqa, seizing a string of villages and moving to positions about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the city.

An AFP correspondent east of Ain Issa, the main staging point for the offensive, said coalition aircraft could be seen on Wednesday carrying out repeated air strikes in the distance and that IS fighters were shelling SDF positions.

Elsewhere in Syria, the Observatory said, eight civilians were killed in rebel rocket attacks on the Furqan and university districts of government-held western Aleppo, while state news agency SANA gave a death toll of six, with students among those killed.

Eight more civilians were killed Wednesday in air strikes on a village in Idlib province of northwest Syria, according to the Observatory.

In Iraq, an official said Tuesday that Kurdish peshmerga fighters had seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul, which would be a final step in securing the eastern approaches to the city.

There were still pockets of resistance in the town, officials said, and an AFP correspondent in Bashiqa reported continued air strikes, gunfire and explosions.

The peshmerga and Iraqi federal forces have been advancing on Mosul from the north, east and south since October 17, and last week pushed into the city’s eastern outskirts.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Wednesday he hoped for enduring US support following Donald Trump’s presidential election win.

“We look forward to the continued support of the world and the United States in standing with Iraq in its confrontation with terrorism,” Abadi said in a statement congratulating Trump.

Officials are warning of long and bloody battles ahead in Mosul and Raqa, with IS expected to put up fierce resistance and to use trapped civilians as human shields.

More than a million people are believed to be in Mosul. Raqa in 2011 had a pre-war population of some 240,000, and more than 80,000 people have since fled there from elsewhere in Syria.

The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that nearly 42,000 people had fled their homes since the start of the Mosul operation. AFP
The United States military states that it has inadvertently killed 64 civilians in air strikes on targets in Syria and Iraq over the past year.