US could have done more: study

The US military could have done more to limit civilian casualties and damage during the battle for the Syrian city of Raqqa that marked the Islamic State's fall in 2017, according to a report commissioned by the Pentagon.

At the end of the nearly five-month battle to free the city from IS, "60 to 80 percent" of it was "uninhabitable" and resentment of the population was directed at the liberators, said a report by the research center RAND Corporation.

The US military, which conducted 95 percent of the airstrikes and 100 percent of the artillery fire during the battle, did not commit war crimes during the battle because it tried to respect international laws on the protection of civilians in wartime, but RAND said there was "room for improvement."

So-called "targeted" air strikes and artillery fire by coalition forces on Raqqa caused numerous civilian casualties between June 6 and October 30, 2017: from 744 to 1,600 dead, according to counts by the coalition, Amnesty International, the RAND report said. According to UN figures, 11,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged between February and October 2017, including eight hospitals, 29 mosques, more than 40 schools, five universities and the city's irrigation system.