News / Syria

New US-led airstrikes in northern Syria kill 8 civilians

Friday, 04 August 2017 1:06 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 04 August 2017 1:25 PM ]

In this file photo, smoke and flame rise after what fighters of the so-called Syria Democratic Forces said were US-led air strikes on Manbij city, Aleppo Province, northern Syria. (Photo by Reuters)

At least eight people have been killed when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group conducted a string of aerial attacks in Syria’s militant-held northern province of Raqqah.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that one woman, two boys and five girls lost their lives on Friday when the US-led warplanes struck areas in the provincial capital city of Raqqah, located about 455 kilometers (283 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus.

The development came only a day after at least 5 people, including a man, his two sons and a grandson, were killed and several others sustained injuries, when US-led military aircraft bombarded an area in the same Syrian city.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.

The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013, and was proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris’ administrative and control tasks the following year.

It is estimated that a population of 300,000 civilians is trapped inside Raqqah, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of Syria. Thousands have fled in recent months, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes about 160,000 people remain in the city.

On June 6, the US-backed militiamen from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had launched an operation aimed at pushing Daesh out of Raqqah.

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