Washington: Air strikes by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group have likely "unintentionally" killed 229 civilians since the offensive began in 2014, according to US Central Command.
The tally does not include civilian casualties from March -- which could include potentially large numbers of civilians killed in strikes over several days in Mosul's al-Jadida area.
Attention has focused on one allegedly particularly deadly strike on March 17.
Stephen Townsend, the senior US commander in Iraq, said coalition forces "probably had a role in those casualties."
The coalition has said it has launched an investigation into the reported deaths.
Iraq is also probing the deadly air strikes in the western district of Mosul al-Jadida, where the number of victims is said to range from dozens to hundreds. The battle for Mosul began in October 2016.
Some 43 different reports of possible civilian deaths in the two countries are still under investigation by the
coalition, the statement said.
Critics, including monitoring groups, say the real number is much higher.
The coalition insists that the IS group has targeted civilians and used them as human shields, making it difficult
to avoid civilian casualties despite its state-of-the-art technology.
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