THE British Government's insistence that no civilians have died as a result of UK airstrikes in Syria and Iraq has been slated by independent observers.

“Is it remotely possible that the UK has carried out 1,000 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria and caused no civilian casualties?" said Chris Woods, director of monitoring group Airwars. "Absolutely not, it would be unprecedented in the history of warfare.”

Amnesty International's Neil Sammonds agreed that it was "extremely inconceivable they have not killed any civilians".

British aircraft have been targeting Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria as part of the US-led coalition for two years this week, carrying out more than 1,000 attacks since the operation began on 26 September 2014.

The claim of zero civilian casualties as a result of use of precise weapons has come under fresh scrutiny after the UK last week admitted RAF Reaper drones were involved in an airstrike which accidentally killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers fighting IS.

Airwars said it has alerted the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to 43 reports of incidents in which civilian casualties were alleged between December and July this year which had the potential to be linked to UK airstrikes.

But in each case, the MoD has said it either did not participate in the event or that its own internal review indicated no civilian casualties.

Earlier this year, the Sunday Herald highlighted concerns that the MoD was refusing to investigate reports of deaths on the ground by UK military personnel and “local forces” deemed friendly.

The MoD subsequently said it would consider investigating allegations of civilian deaths raised by monitoring groups.

Airwar's Woods said it now sent monthly reports to the MoD flagging up any potential incidents for investigation, which was a “welcome step forward”.

But he added: “On the cases so far, they have said either British aircraft simply weren’t involved in these events – that is understandable. On some occasions they will come back and say yes we have conducted that strike, we’ve done our own assessment now and concluded there were no civilian casualties.

“In a small number of cases, they have come back and, based on our own evidence, said we don’t believe that civilian casualties were caused.”

Woods said the UK was rated as the most transparent member of the coalition in terms of publishing information about when and where airstrikes take place.

However the US is the only member to have admitted to having caused civilian deaths – a total of 55.

Airwars estimates that a minimum of 1,608 civilians have been killed as a result of coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria – and the total could be as high as 2,429.

In just one incident in July this year, between 78 and 203 civilians were alleged to have been killed by coalition forces at the village of Tokhar, near Manbij in Syria, including 28 or more children. There were 18 reported strikes near the village on the same day.

Woods raised concerns over investigations of the incidents relying too heavily on evidence from aerial assessments.

“Our issue with the British Government at the moment is that it is taking an absence of knowledge and it is leveraging that into a positive – we haven’t killed any civilians," he said.

“These are two completely separate things. The very best they can say is we don’t know.”

He added: “When the coalition kills friendly forces it admits it within 24 hours – sadly we just don’t see that kind of engagement when civilians are involved. The current delay between the coalition killing a civilian and admitting it is six months, not one day. That tells us something about priorities.”

Amnesty International is researching and documenting concerns relating to the impact of airstrikes on civilians by the US-led coalition.

Their Syria researcher Sammonds said the US admission of just 55 civilian casualties in two years of “heavy bombing of two countries” was “inconceivable”.

The casualties admitted to by the US equated to one civilian death for every 1,000 combatants killed.

“Looking at air-led campaigns in other countries over the past 10 years or so, it is roughly one civilian per 10 (combatants) killed in a ‘good-ish’ war,” he said.

“It is true we don’t have any hard information to say the UK has killed civilians, but it does say it has killed 1,000 (IS) fighters in the two countries and again we would say it is extremely inconceivable they have not killed any civilians.

“Even if it was equivalent to the US figure of one per 1,000, they would have killed one person.”

He added that knowing the true extent of civilian casualties was essential to assessing whether military action was justifiable or a disproportionate attack.

The Ministry of Defence said it could not completely eliminate the risk of civilian casualties, but the risk was “carefully mitigated” through “strict targeting procedures".

It said this includes the ability of the RAF to direct munitions away from a target into an open area if an unidentified person enters the place where terrorists are being targeted, in a procedure known as a “shift cold”.

A spokesman for the MoD added: “The evidence from detailed assessments of each strike is that we've avoided any civilian casualties so far in this conflict.”