By Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON (AA) – U.S. airstrikes have killed at least 20 civilians and injured 11 others in Iraq and Syria between last September and early February, a defense official said Friday. However, human rights group says 380 civilians were killed in 18 months since the beginning of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on Syria.

Central Command spokesman Col. Pat Ryder told reporters at a teleconference from Tampa, Florida, that nine separate U.S. airstrikes from Sept. 10 to Feb. 2 were examined with a “thorough review of the facts and circumstances for each allegation.

“We deeply regret the unintentional loss of life and injuries resulting from those airstrikes and express our deepest sympathies to the victims’ families and those affected,” Ryder said.

According to Ryder, the total number of civilian deaths caused by U.S. airstrikes in 18 months is 41, along with 28 injuries.

He added that to date, U.S. authorities have received 162 allegations of civilian casualties but 112 were deemed not credible and only 27 were assessed as credible.

According to Ryder, 20 other allegation are “pending credibility assessment” while three others are currently being investigated. Investigations with respect to the last two has been completed and will be announced soon, he noted.

Still, U.S. military figures stand in stark contrast to those of independent human rights observatories.

The U.K.-based Syrian Network for Human Rights reports 169 civilians, including 42 children and 30 women, have been killed by the international coalition countering Daesh.

A spokesman of the organization, Wael Aleji, told Anadolu Agency that the difference might have been caused by the methodology that the American authorities apply in investigations.

“They were denying before,” Aleji based in London said over the phone. “It is a step forward that they are acknowledging it now although the number is way lower than ours.”

He said that his organization is checking allegations against the releases by government and international organization, as well interviews conducted with family members of victims.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also a U.K.-based independent organization, has reported that at least 380 civilians were killed in 18 months since the beginning of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on Syria.

According to a CENTCOM press release following Ryder’s briefing, the strikes causing civilian casualties included those near the Iraqi cities of Hit, Mosul, Ramadi, Huwaijah and Syrian cities of Raqqa, Tishreen and Ghazilli.

The strike on Daesh’s cash collection center in Mosul in January also caused at least one civilian death and five others’ were injured, read the release.

The Pentagon said then that the strike took place at a time when the risk for civilian casualties was the lowest.

[Photo: Syrian Red Crescent trucks carry humanitarian aid sent by United Nations (UN) in the opposition controlled Sakba town in the Eastern Ghouta region of Damascus, Syria on April 19, 2016. Photograph: Samir Tatin/AA]