News / Syria

Over 100 Syrians killed in US-led strikes in a week: SOHR

Monday, 21 August 2017 1:02 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 22 August 2017 1:57 PM ]

Heavy smoke billows following a US airstrike on the western frontline of Raqqah on July 17, 2017. (Photos by AFP)

A so-called monitoring group says more than one-hundred civilians have lost their lives in a week as the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group conducted a series of aerial assaults in Syria’s militant-held northern city of Raqqah.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday that 125 civilians, including at least 40 minors and 25 women, had lost their lives in US-led aerial attacks against the city, located about 455 kilometers (283 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus, between August 14 and August 21.

The Britain-based monitoring group added that 27 people, among them seven children and six women, died on Sunday when US-led military aircraft bombarded Harah al-Badou and other neighborhoods in Raqqah.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two separate letters sent to UN Secretary General António Guterres and rotating President of the UN Security Council Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta on August 17, called on the United Nations to take on its responsibilities concerning the establishment of international peace and security to put an end to the US-led coalition’s crimes against innocent Syrians.

This photo shows smoke rising during fighting between militants of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces and Daesh terrorists in Raqqah, Syria, August 20, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also accused the US-led coalition of using guided bombs and internationally-banned white phosphorus munitions in flagrant violation of international law and human rights principles.

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 some 300,000 civilians are 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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