US Lacks Figures on Civilians Killed During Daesh Occupation of Ramadi

The US military does not have a dependable body count figure for civilians killed by Daesh during the terrorist group’s brief reign in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States, Warren noted, did not have any announcements or updated figures related on civilian casualties resulting from actions by the Iraqi security forces in Ramadi.

"We know that ISIL [Islamic State] takes great pleasure in executions, beheadings, immolations and other assorted acts of barbarism…so we could only imagine what life must have been like in Ramadi," Warren noted. "But we do not yet have a reliable figure for how many civilians they killed."

In May 2014, Daesh occupied Ramadi when the defense of the city by Iraqi security forces collapsed. Ramadi was retaken after weeks of fierce fighting from December 2015 to February 2016.

A total of 1,406 Iraqis were killed and another 3,074 were injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq overall from December 2015 to February 2016, according to numbers posted on the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq’s website.

Daesh is a terrorist group that claims to have established an Islamic caliphate on the territory under its control in Syria and Iraq, and that has led or inspired attacks in Europe. The group is outlawed in many countries around the world, including the United States and Russia.