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Air fight against ISIS comes to quiet end

Official figures have revealed that no bombs have been dropped by the RAF in Syria or Iraq since September, suggesting that Britain’s five-year air war against ISIS has quietly come to an end.

The data shows that over a period longer than the first world war, 4,215 bombs and missiles were launched from Reaper drones or RAF jets in the region, though discrepancy remains between the UK and IS over the number of civilians estimated to have been killed as a result.

The US-led coalition against ISIS estimates that all air raids caused 1,370 civilian casualties, and a fresh analysis by Airwars of ‘problem strikes’ has highlighted three involving the RAF. Local reports claim that 15 civilians were killed by the RAF in the strikes in 2017 and 2018. In the worst incident, 12 civilians were killed as a result of a blast at a building housing ISIS fighters in Raqqa in Syria in August 2017.

However, the Ministry of Defence still only acknowledges just one civilian casualty in the entire conflict.

An MoD spokesperson is quoted as saying: “The MoD examines all the evidence available to us, including a comprehensive assessment of all available mission data, and have seen nothing that indicates civilian casualties were caused.”

It is also estimated that the missiles and bombs, believed to have numbered an average of more than two strikes a day over the five year period, cost an estimated £312 million.

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