Only official civilian victim of UK’s bombing campaign against IS appears not to exist

Islamic State fighters parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armoured vehicle in Mosul, Iraq. Photograph: AP

It sounded like accountability. Pressed about the UK’s implausibly spotless record in its bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the British government admitted in May 2018 that its military had killed one civilian in eastern Syria two months earlier.

But the strike the then defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, described to parliament was not logged in the records of civilian casualties kept by its allies in the international coalition flying bombers and drones over Syria and Iraq.