DAMASCUS (Dispatches) –  More than 3,000 civilians have been killed in U.S.-led coalition air strikes in Syria since they began four years ago, a monitor says.
The Washington-led alliance puts the toll at just over 1,000 civilians in both Syria and neighboring Iraq, and claims it does all it can to prevent civilian deaths.
The coalition purportedly began bombing Daesh targets in Iraq in August 2014 after the terrorist group seized swathes of territory straddling the two countries, proclaiming a "caliphate".
The coalition extended its strikes to Syria on September 23, 2014.
"Among those killed are 826 children and 615 women,” said head of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel-Rahman.
The aerial assaults, however, have on many occasions resulted in civilian casualties and failed to fulfill their declared aim of countering terrorism.
The Britain-based group’s report comes as Washington claims that its airstrikes killed just 1,061 civilians in both Syria and neighboring Iraq until July 30, 2018.
Rights groups have censured the U.S. and its allies for not pursuing investigations of civilian casualties rigorously enough.
In June, Amnesty International announced that U.S. attacks in Syria's Raqqah last year broke international law by endangering the lives of civilians and may amount to "potential war crimes.”
"The artificially low number of civilian casualties the coalition acknowledges stems in part from poor investigation procedures that fail even to involve on-the-ground research,” it said back then.
U.S. officials dealing with the Syria issue said early this month that "the administration is now resolved to stay in Syria longer than President Donald Trump previously indicated.”