Ambassador Antonov on the victims of Pentagon airstrikes: the United States has lost understanding of the pricelessness of life
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / RIA Novosti
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov commented on media reports that the Pentagon underestimated the number of civilian casualties from air strikes in the Middle East. He said that the United States has lost understanding of the pricelessness of life. His words are published on the Facebook page by the Russian diplomatic mission.
“The number of victims of” targeted “attacks by the US Armed Forces – according to preliminary estimates, more than 1,500 civilians – is terrifying. Among the dead are women and children. Their murder is on the conscience of those in the United States military department and, obviously, the special services serving it, who were in a hurry to report on their successes in counterterrorism, ”Antonov said.
At the same time, the diplomat stressed that Washington has lost understanding of the invaluableness of human life. He also added that he was outraged by the excuses that the death of civilians was the result of “honest mistakes.” According to Antonov, the circumstances revealed to the public by the New York Times are not the only blunder in the actions of the United States. He pointed out that the cases of the use of depleted uranium munitions against Yugoslavia, Syria and Iraq, as well as the bombing of the Iraqi city of Fallujah and Raqqa in Syria, have not yet been investigated.
“Questions about the supply of weapons from Western countries to terrorist groups remain unanswered. The list of claims is long and requires closer attention from the international community, ”the diplomat said.
Earlier, the New York Times accused the Pentagon of underestimating the number of civilian deaths in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The journalists conducted their own analysis, interviewed civilian survivors, and visited more than a hundred sites associated with US airstrikes, and concluded that only 12 percent of cases recommended a full-scale investigation.
