Thread by @Headsnipe011

Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve Press Briefing by Col. Ryan via Video conference from Baghdad, Iraq

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dod.defense.gov/News/Transcrip…

***Iraq, Syria, ISIS, and Iran. Posting what stood out to me.***

Q: Hey, Colonel. Tom Bowman with NPR.

I wonder if you could address civilian casualties. I guess the Pentagon and you guys estimate roughly 1,000 civilian casualties from air strikes, artillery strikes in both Iraq and Syria.

Amnesty International put that number at 3,000 in Syria alone.

Talk about how -- the difference in numbers, if you can.

And also, Amnesty says that your investigations are flawed because you don't interview witnesses or survivors.

COL. RYAN: Okay.

Well, first of all, our thoughts and prayers to any innocent victims under the ISIS rule and, of course, from any coalition airstrikes.

We realize there are discrepancies in those numbers. However, we go off facts. We -- and that is how we go through the process of doing this. We're not sure exactly the matrix of how these other groups are -- are coming up with these numbers.

So we're not saying that there could be more that were innocently killed, what we're saying is we have to go on the -- the facts that we have when we look into these cases.

One thing I'd also like to add, Tom, is we're currently still fighting ISIS. It's not really -- you know, we don't have the -- the manpower to go in there and conduct the investigations that we'd like to do.

We do have people on the ground doing that, but that's not their sole focus.

So a lot still needs to be done. It's -- it's terrible what's happened in those areas because of ISIS. But, you know, we continue to take the responsibility and we realize that some of these areas came at a very high cost of liberation.

Q: But what about interviewing witnesses and survivors in Raqqa, which has been, you know, pacified? Are you interviewing witnesses and survivors in Raqqa itself?

COL. RYAN: We have groups right now on the ground there investigating. I don't think they're going as -- as detailed into maybe what Amnesty's doing right now. I don't know exactly how their investigation works.

But we also use other things like, you know, videos and intelligence, and things of that nature to look into these and -- and to use that for our investigation.

Q: Why aren't they going as deeply as Amnesty?

COL. RYAN: I'm sorry, repeat that?

Q: Why aren't they going as deeply as Amnesty, as you said?

COL. RYAN: Tom, right now we're still fighting ISIS.

Q: No, I'm talking in Raqqa.

COL. RYAN: Right. We're still fighting ISIS in -- in the MERV and some other areas in this region.

So we don't have the manpower right now to just exclusively send teams in there; we have teams going in, but that's not their only job.