News / Syria

New US-led raids leave 17 civilians dead across Syria

Thursday, 03 August 2017 1:49 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 03 August 2017 2:33 PM ]

In this file photo, a pair of US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fly over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria. (Photo by US Air Force)

More than a dozen civilians have been killed and many more injured when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group carried out separate aerial attacks in Syria’s militant-held northern province of Raqqah as well as eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 5 people, including a man, his two sons and a grandson, lost their lives and several others sustained injuries, when US-led military aircraft bombarded an area in Raqqah, located about 455 kilometers (283 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus, on Thursday.

The Britain-based monitoring group added that the death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are said to be in critical condition.

Meanwhile, Arabic-language Qasioun news agency reported that a dozen civilians were killed and dozens others injured early on Thursday when unidentified warplanes pounded al-Tabani town west of Dayr al-Zawr city.

Local sources said the victims were members of one family.

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.

US-led Syrian Kurds, Daesh militants clash in Raqqah

Separately, US-backed militiamen from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have engaged in fierce clashes with Daesh Takfiri terrorists as they are battling to drive the latter out of Raqqah.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the skirmishes were going on in Nazlet Shahada and Hisham Bin Abdel Malik neighborhoods,

Members of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, hold a position in western Raqqah on July 12, 2017, during an offensive to retake the city from Daesh Takfiri terrorists. (Photo by AFP)

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 SDF said it had launched an operation aimed at pushing Daesh out of Raqqah.

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.

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