US-led coalition targeting Syrians over refusal to back SDF militants: Damascus

The Damascus government says the so-called US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh Takfiri terrorist group is targeting ordinary people in the northern province of Hasakah and Raqqah as well as eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr as a punishment for their refusal to back and join US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militants.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two separate letters addressed to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating President of the UN Security Council Vasily Nebenzya on Tuesday, condemned the continuing attacks by the US-led coalition against innocent Syrians, and its assaults on the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the conflict-plagued Arab country.

The letters further noted that the “illegal” US-led coalition continues to perpetrate massacres against Syrian civilians, leaving scores of people, including elderly people, women and children, dead over the past few days and destroying homes as well as civilian properties and infrastructure in targeted villages.

The Syrian foreign ministry added that the US-led coalition is devoid of any international legitimacy, and has bombarded people in the provinces of Hasakah, Raqqah and Dayr al-Zawr after they did not agree to support SDF forces.

PressTV-12 Syrian civilians killed in new US-led strikes

At least 12 civilians, all members of the same family, have been killed in fresh US-led air raids in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah.

“The United States has organized these militants in a bid to target the positions of the Syrian army, and recapture areas liberated by the Syrian army soldiers and their allies from the menace of terrorism,” the letters pointed out.

They noted, “The United States has on occasions offered direct support to Daesh Takfiri terrorist group – the latest of which was on May 24 when US-led fighter aircraft struck Syrian army military sites between Albu Kamal border town and  Hmeimim Air Base less than 24 hours after government forces thwarted Daesh assaults on its positions.”

“The US-led coalition’s continued war crimes and crimes against humanity against Syrian people, its support for terrorism and use of terrorists and separatist militants to achieve its despicable political purposes confirm that the sole purpose of this contingent is to undermine Syria’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, and prolong its crisis,” the Syrian foreign ministry pointed out.

The ministry then called upon members of the US-led coalition, which claim to advocate human rights, international humanitarian law and the Charter of the United Nations, to withdraw from this “disgraceful” force.

It also urged the Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security, immediately stop the massacres being perpetrated by the US-led alliance against Syrian civilians, put an end to the aggressive and illegal presence of US and other foreign forces on Syrian soil, and stop US plans aimed at supporting terrorism in Syria.

Earlier on Tuesday, local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that US-led aerial attacks had targeted al-Jazaa village in Hasakah province, leaving ten people dead.

The sources added that there were women and children among the fallen 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 military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.

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