...
By Sofia Lotto Persio
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Activists say that U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor have killed more than 20 civilians in an operation against fighters from the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).
The strikes targeted two sites on the Syrian-Iraqi border late on April 17 according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based monitoring group that claimed children were among the dead.
At least seven civilians were killed and 12 injured in the town of al-Husainiyah, located west of Deir Ezzor on the Euphrates river, where warplanes believed to belong to the international coalition targeted a school that ISIS militants were using as a headquarters.
Read More on World
SOHR said the death toll was expected to increase as many of those injured were in a critical condition. Another strike hit al-Bukamal, a town close to the Iraqi border, and killed at least 13 civilians and three ISIS militants.
Syrian opposition activist Omar Abu Laila, who runs a news website about the Deir Ezzor province but lives in Europe, told the Associated Press that the dead included an Iraqi family of four.
"The number of casualties is huge," he said.
Abu Laila added that at least four buildings were struck in the bombing and that mosque loudspeakers were urging people to donate blood. In the hours since, ISIS has cut all communications to the town.
The U.S. coalition has not yet replied to Newsweek's request for comment on the allegations of civilian casualties. In its daily report of strikes against ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq as part of the Operation Inherent Resolve, the coalition said it conducted one strike against an "ISIS staging area" near al-Bukamal and four strikes near Deir Ezzor, which "destroyed four ISIS well heads, a command and control node and an ISIS vehicle." A well head is a point at which oil can be drawn from the ground.
The coalition has carried out several airstrikes in recent months in the Deir Ezzor province, strategically important for ISIS militants moving between Iraq and Syria. Some parts of the province's capital, which has the same name, are still under control of the Syrian government which has been fighting ISIS in the area backed by Russian air power.
Organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Airwars have noted the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes are responsible for an increasing number of civilians casualties in Iraq and Syria. On March 17, an airstrike allegedly carried out by coalition warplanes killed as many as 200 civilians in Mosul. The U.S. is currently probing the bombing, with U.S. Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend admitting the coalition "probably" had a role in the civilian casualties.
A day before the Mosul bombing, the coalition targeted dozens of al-Qaeda members in the northern province of Aleppo, Syria. The airstrike hit a mosque, killing more than 40 civilians, according to local sources.
The coalition has denied the claims, but an independent investigation—carried out by Human Rights Watch, investigative outlet Bellingcat and research agency Forensic Architecture—published on April 18, found that U.S. forces acted unlawfully in regards to protecting civilians. "U.S. authorities failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian casualties in the attack, a requirement under the laws of war," the report said.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines