US-led airstrikes claim more civilian lives in Syria’s Raqqah

A pro-opposition monitoring group says at least 15 civilians have been killed after the US-led coalition, purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, conducted air raids on the Syrian province of Raqqah.

"The strikes this morning hit the village of Zur Shammar, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Raqqah on the southern banks of the Euphrates River," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Wednesday.

He noted that “three children and four women" were among the victims. 

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 Western 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.

Meanwhile, the observatory said that suspected pro-government Russian airstrikes left another 15 civilians dead in a Daesh-held village in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr on Wednesday. There was no official confirmation of the report.

On Tuesday, several civilians lost their lives when the US-led coalition carried out a number of aerial attacks in Syria's troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon admitted that the US-led coalition airstrikes have killed over 600 civilians in Syria and Iraq between August 2014 and May 2017.

The Pentagon's estimate of civilian deaths comes as independent monitors have time and again challenged such reports and revealed that the US-led military campaign has significantly inflicted more civilian casualties.

Read More:

• 600 civilians killed in US-led strikes in Iraq, Syria: Pentagon

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.

There are concerns that the number of civilian deaths in the US-led airstrikes could increase as many as 100,000 civilians are trapped in Raqqah province.

Late last month, the United Nations urged all sides fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, "including international forces", to spare the civilians' lives.

Read More:

• UN urges protection of 100k civilians trapped in Syria's Raqqah

Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored militant and terrorist groups since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated last August that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then.

Russia has been lending aerial support to the Syrian counterterrorism operations since September 2015.

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