RAF strikes on ISIS in Iraq 'may have killed civilians' says a source inside the coalition fighting the Islamic State Group

​A source inside the coalition fighting the Islamic State Group told the BBC he believes civilians have been killed as a result of RAF air strikes. But it has also been discovered that some RAF bombs have malfunctioned and strayed off target.
 
Estimates for the number of civilians killed in the nine-month battle for Mosul - the last stronghold of the Islamic State group in Iraq - range from more than 1,000 to 10 times that number. Some were also the unintended victims of the US-led coalition's bombing campaign, which saw 29,000 munitions dropped or fired in and around the city.
 
Airwars, a group which has been monitoring civilian casualties, says it is likely that between 1,066 and 1,579 civilians died in the fighting in Mosul.
Of the half a dozen coalition members who carried out airstrikes in the city, so far only the US and Australia have accepted responsibility for causing civilian casualties.
 
At present the coalition has admitted to causing just over 350 civilian deaths in Mosul. US Central Command is still working its way through a list of other allegations.
 
Chris Woods of Airwars says: "It's simply fanciful to claim no civilians have been harmed by the RAF.  We don't live in a world of magic bombs and missiles that only kill bad people."
 
The reality is that while the UK and coalition airstrikes helped rid the city of the scourge of ISIS the MoD has carried out no investigations on the ground counting the cost to civilian life.