This image made from gun-camera video taken on July 4, 2015 and released by United States Central Command shows an airstrike on a main road and transit route near the Islamic State group-held Raqqa, Syria.
U.S.-led air strikes targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria have likely killed at least 459 civilians over the past year, a report by an independent monitoring group said Monday.
The report by Airwars, a project aimed at tracking the international air strikes targeting the extremists, said it believed 57 specific strikes killed civilians and caused 48 suspected "friendly fire" deaths. It said the strikes have killed more than 15,000 Islamic State militants.
While Airwars noted the difficulty of verifying information in territory held by the IS group, which has kidnapped and killed journalists and activists, other groups have reported similar
casualties from the U.S.-led air strikes.
"Almost all claims of non-combatant deaths from alleged coalition strikes emerge within 24 hours – with graphic images of reported victims often widely disseminated," the report said.
"In this context, the present
coalition policy of downplaying or denying all claims of non-combatant fatalities makes little sense, and risks handing Islamic State and other forces a powerful propaganda tool."
The U.S. launched air strikes in Iraq on Aug. 8, 2014, and in Syria on Sept. 23, 2014, to target the Islamic State group. A coalition of countries, including Canada, later joined to help allied ground forces combat the extremists. To date, the coalition has launched more than 5,800 air strikes in both countries.
Conservative candidate Jason Kenney, who remains minister of national defence and minister of multiculturalism during the current election campaign, said the report was an estimate by one group and getting confirmed reports of civilian casualties in the area is very difficult.
"We're not aware of any claims of civilian casualties as a result of the [Royal Canadian Air Force] bombing [of Islamic State] targets in Iraq and Syria, and I believe the United States is only aware of one," he told The Globe and Mail on Monday.
The U.S. has only acknowledged killing two civilians in its strikes: two children who were likely slain during an American air strike targeting al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria last year. That strike is the subject of one of at least four ongoing U.S. military investigations into allegations of civilian casualties resulting from the air strikes.
U.S. Army Colonel Wayne Marotto, a spokesman for the
coalition, did not address the report directly, but said, "there is no other military in the world that works as hard as we do to be precise."
"When an allegation of civilian casualties caused by coalition forces is determined to be credible, we investigate it fully and strive to learn from it so as to avoid recurrence," he said in a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press.
Airwars said it identified the 57 strikes through reporting from "two or more generally credible sources, often with biographical, photographic or video evidence." The incidents also corresponded to confirmed coalition strikes conducted in the area at that time, it said.
Airwars called for greater transparency and accountability from coalition members, since each is individually liable for any civilian deaths or injuries it causes.
"Only one of 12 coalition partners – Canada – has consistently stated in a timely fashion both where and when it carries out air strikes," the report said.
Meanwhile, the ongoing armed conflict in Syria against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad continues to claim civilian casualties in the beleaguered country. Government air raids in a northwestern town and a subsequent crash by a Syrian warplane that slammed into a residential area there killed at least 27 people on Monday, activists said.
The raids on the town of Ariha came amid intense clashes between government forces and insurgents in the northwestern province of Idlib and the central region of Hama. The town, once a government stronghold, was captured by opposition fighters and Islamist militants in May.
An activist group known as the Local Co-ordination Committees said the warplane crashed in a busy market, adding that it was not immediately clear whether it was shot down.
Editor's note: The original newspaper version and an earlier digital version of this story said federal Conservative candidate Jason Kenney served as minister of national defence and minister of multiculturalism until the government was dissolved Sunday. It has been corrected to indicate he remains minister in both those areas. In addition, Parliament was dissolved Sunday, not the government.