Less than 1 percent of the 18,000 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have led to reports of possible civilian deaths, The Daily Caller reports, citing a monthly Pentagon report.
And only a small fraction involved confirmed deaths of civilians, according to the website which said it reviewed the Pentagon's monthly civilian casualty assessment report.
Since the coalition began the strikes in August, 2014 there have been 229 confirmed civilian deaths, The Daily Caller said.
The numbers are expected to rise after the Pentagon's review of the March 17 airstrike in support of Iraqi Security Forces' advance on the city of Mosul, the website noted.
About 200 civilians were reported killed in the collapse of a building in the city, CNN reports.
"We have an investigation going on, but our initial assessment ... shows we did strike in that area, there were multiple strikes in that area, so is it possible that we did that? Yes, I think it is possible," said Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend.
"Because we struck in that area, I think there's a fair chance that we did it."
He said investigators are trying to determine whether ISIS was fighting from the building with civilians in order to "lure" the U.S. "deliberately, or they were just using them as human shields to try to protect their fighting position."
The Daily Caller added nearly 400,000 civilians are still inside ISIS controlled Mosul. The website said the civilians "may be increasingly used as human shields as ISIS hangs on to the last of its territory in Iraq."
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