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NATO to join anti-IS coalition: diplomatic sources
 by Staff Writers
 Brussels (AFP) May 24, 2017


No increase in civilian deaths under Trump: US general
Washington (AFP) May 24, 2017 - A top US Air Force official on Wednesday denied claims that civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria are soaring under President Donald Trump, who has given greater leeway to battlefield commanders.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria, this week said it has seen numbers jump since Trump came into power.

The group estimates as many as 366 civilians were killed in Iraq and Syria in April alone.

Another Britain-based group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on Tuesday said US-led air strikes killed 225 civilians in Syria over the past month.

"I am not going to agree to those numbers," said Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

"We have different numbers that we have garnered through our assessments and our analysis of it."

As of the most recent Centcom count at the end of April, a total of 396 civilians had been killed since the beginning of the bombing campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria nearly three years ago.

The US military insists that its precision targeting abilities are the best in the world and that it takes every measure to avoid hitting civilians, including by aborting missile strikes at the last moment if a civilian unexpectedly wanders into the target zone.

But Airwars Director Chris Wood said a rise in civilian deaths has been particularly noticeable around the IS stronghold of Raqa in Syria, where thousands of jihadists are dug in ahead of an upcoming offensive to recapture the city.

"With three full months of airstrike and civilian casualty data from Donald Trump's presidency, we are now seeing the emergence of clear trends," Woods said.

Raqa provides "the clearest evidence yet that protections for civilians on the battlefield appear to have been scaled back -- with the inevitable consequence of higher deaths and injuries," he added.

The coalition has sharply increased the number of bombs it is dropping, and Trump has allowed commanders to more quickly approve strikes and fulfil a plan to "annihilate" IS.

Harrigian insisted fatalities have not risen as a result.

"My direct answer to that is no," he said.

"With respect to the administration's guidance to us, the rules of engagement have not changed. So, we are executing those (strikes) in accordance with the training that we've had and the deliberate process that we use to target military-appropriate targets."

NATO is to join the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition, meeting a key demand of President Donald Trump that the alliance do more to fight Islamist terrorism, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

Trump was due to meet NATO leaders in Brussels on Thursday to press his case, with the deadly IS-claimed bomb attack in Manchester high on the agenda.

Earlier Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he expected NATO to join despite reservations by some members states which are fearful of getting dragged into another conflict.

"The NATO (member state) ambassadors decided this evening an action plan on terrorism for the summit. It includes the accession of NATO to the global coalition against IS," one diplomat said.

This specifically will involve an expansion of flights by NATO's AWACS surveillance aircraft currently supporting anti-IS operations in Syria and Iraq.

"This means that the AWACS will not just do airspace surveillance but airspace management," the diplomat said, asking not to be identified.

"They are going to coordinate the flights and direct airplanes over Syria and Iraq but only for flights which are not related to bombings."

NATO leaders will formally endorse the decision at Thursday's summit, the sources said.

All 28 allies have joined the anti-IS coalition of more than 60 countries, but NATO as an institution has not followed suit up to now despite intense pressure from Washington.

Tillerson said that NATO's joining "would be a really important step" but that "there are a couple of countries that are still thinking it over."

"I have had meetings actually with one of those. I think they're going to support NATO joining and becoming a member of the ISIS fight," he told reporters travelling with Trump.

NATO has baulked at taking on any combat role in the fight against IS and some allies such as France, Germany and Italy have been opposed for fear the alliance would be dragged into a ground war and risk its standing with Arab powers.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said earlier that "many allies would like to see NATO as a full member of the coalition... because it sends a strong message of unity."

"Especially in light of the attack in Manchester, I think it is important to send this message of unity against terrorism."

Trump will also urge the allies to increase defence spending to the target of two percent of a country's annual gross domestic product, as they agreed in 2014.

In return, the allies hope the president will unequivocally state his support for NATO's core Article 5 collective defence commitment.

Asked about this issue, Tillerson said: "Of course we support Article 5. The only time Article 5 has been invoked was in the 9/11" attacks on the United States.

But he refused to be drawn on what Trump might say.

"He is still working on final remarks so I don't want to tell you exactly what is going to be in the speech," he said.

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