Damascus denounces US-led ‘massacre’ in Syria, calls on UN to intervene

Syria has called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the so-called US-led coalition, and to prevent it from conducting further airstrikes in the Middle Eastern country, after the coalition’s latest airborne assault claimed lives of over 40 civilians.   

In two separate letters sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council President Koro Bessho on Friday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry strongly denounced the US-led coalitions “atrocities committed against civilians,” and called for bringing the perpetrators to justice, Syria's official SANA news agency reported.

The letters written after US-led warplanes launched airstrikes on the town of Ghandour, which is more than 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) away from the violence-ridden city of Manbij, in Syria’s strategic northern province of Aleppo on Thursday.

At least “45 civilians were brutally killed… and 50 others were injured” in the deadly airstrikes, the report further said.

The development came after at least 15 people were killed and injured in US-led airstrikes against al-Nawajah village east of Manbij on July 23, a few days after another deadly US-led raid left 120 civilians dead near Manbij.

On July 22, the military coalition also killed at least 20 civilians in Manbij and claimed the lives of at least 30 more, including 11 children, in the same city on June 9, in aerial attacks purportedly conducted against positions of Daesh in the area.   

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also censured the ceaseless support of France, US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the so-called “moderate opposition” groups, calling it an overt support for the terrorists wreaking havoc across the world, specifically in Syria.

The letters further said that any anti-terror campaign in Syria is doomed to failure unless done in cooperation with the Syrian government and in accordance with international law and the UN Charter.

The ministry also cited remarkable similarities between the “massacres” perpetrated by the US-led coalition and the terror groups operating in Syria, saying both sides are trying to exacerbate the situation across the country following the Syrian army’s recent victories in Aleppo city.

It also called on "the UN Security Council to enforce its anti-terrorism resolutions against the countries backing terrorism.”

The letters said in conclusion that Syria would not give up its fight against terrorism while pursuing a political solution to the crisis "without foreign interference." 

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be the Daesh terrorists inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The coalition has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures that it receives from various sources.

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