"(The Department of Defense) assesses that there are credible reports of approximately 499 civilians killed and approximately 169 civilians injured during 2017" as a result of military operations in Iraq and Syria targeting ISIS, operations in Afghanistan targeting the Taliban and ISIS, and operations in Yemen against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS, the report said. Not only has the Pentagon "deemed that the vast majority of claims of civilian casualties are not credible without ever investigating them," she said that the "investigations that do occur by the Defense Department also do not appear to involve interviews with witnesses nor survivors, nor visits to the locations of the strikes. However, the report adds that "more than 450 reports of civilian casualties from 2017 remained to be assessed," meaning the number of civilian casualties caused by US military operations could go up. The US-led military coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria released its own report Thursday saying that "at least 892 civilians have been unintentionally killed" as a result of the 29,358 strikes that the coalition has carried out against ISIS targets between August 2014 and the end of April 2018.
A Department of Defense report presented to the United States Congress estimates at 499 the number of civilian deaths in US military actions during the year 2017, with more than 450 reports remaining to be assessed. The casualties occurred in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.