US-led warplanes drop white phosphorus bombs on eastern Syria: Report
The US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has reportedly dropped internationally-banned white phosphorus bombs on Syria’s troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.
Local sources told Syria’s official news agency SANA that the airstrikes targeted the small city of Hajin on Saturday.
There were no immediate reports of possible casualties or the extent of damage caused.
On September 8, two F-15 warplanes of the US Air Force targeted the same Syrian city with white phosphorous bombs.
The head of the Russian Reconciliation Center, Major General Vladimir Savchenko, announced the development in a statement, adding that the airstrikes caused massive blazes at the site.
Last June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that the US-led coalition was deploying white phosphorous bombs in both Iraq and Syria.
“No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities like [Syria’s] Raqqah and [Iraq’s] Mosul and any other areas with concentrations of civilians,” Steve Goose, the arms director at the New York-based organization, said at the time.
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.
Addressing world leaders at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 29, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said the US-led coalition had been doing everything it could since the onset of its airstrikes but combat terrorism and militant outfits wreaking havoc in the Arab country.
Muallem described the military alliance as “illegitimate” and censured the “hegemonic policies” pursued by certain countries against the Damascus government.
Exposure to white phosphorous can cause extensive and deep second- and third-degree burns, while inhalation of the fume released by it may result in illness or death.
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.
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