U.S. bombs dropped in Raqqa campaign exceeded total airstrikes across Afghanistan: Report

American and coalition aircraft dropped more bombs inside the Islamic State-held Syrian city of Raqqa in a single month than U.S. warplanes fired on Taliban and other extremist groups across all of Afghanistan during the same time frame, a recently released independent report on the coalition air war in Syria says.

Officials at Airwars.com, a nonprofit research group focused on tracking civilian casualties tied to the offensive, say just over 6,000 bombs, shells and missiles targeting fighters from the terror group known as ISIS or ISIL were fired into Raqqa in August.

In comparison, U.S., Afghan and NATO forces in Afghanistan fired just over 500 munitions against Taliban targets and those associated with the ISIS’ Afghan cell, known as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — Khorasan Group or ISIL-K, during that same time frame.

The ten-fold increase of air and artillery strikes launched in the anti-ISIS offensive — which Airwars officials say resulted in 400 civilian casualties — compared to U.S. operations in Afghanistan, reflects the growing intensity of the Raqqa campaign, which is entering its fourth month.

“Using explosive weapons such as bombs and missiles in populated areas poses a predictable risk to civilians,” Ole Solvang, deputy director of the emergencies division at Human Rights Watch, told Airwars. “The amount of munitions the coalition is firing into Raqqa raises serious concerns whether the coalition is taking all feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties,” he added.

U.N. officials and international human rights advocates have been sounding the alarm over potentially high civilian casualties in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, since the U.S. and coalition air campaign ramped up in 2014. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi raised the issue of civilian casualties during the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York this week.

Since 2014, American and allied forces have carried out over 26,000 airstrikes against suspected Islamic State targets in the region, according to figures compiled by the Defense Department. Officially, U.S. military officials claim coalition airstrikes have resulted in just over 600 civilian deaths, but unofficial tallies by independent nongovernmental organizations say the number of innocent civilians killed in the air war is in the thousands.

The U.N. human rights office said at least 140 Iraqi civilians were killed by a single U.S. airstrike on March 17 in western Mosul’s al-Jadida district. A Pentagon investigation found that U.S. warplanes adhered to the stated rules of engagement during the strike. The body count was high because Islamic State fighters confined civilians in the target area to use as human shields.