News / Syria

Fresh US-led air raids kill 7 civilians in Syria’s Mayadin

Thursday, 24 August 2017 1:37 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 24 August 2017 2:36 PM ]

Smoke rises after an airstrike during fighting between members of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces and Daesh Takfiri terrorists in Raqqah, Syria, on August 15, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

At least seven civilians have lost their lives when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group conducted a series of aerial assaults on Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Local sources told Syria’s official news agency, SANA, on Thursday that seven people, mostly women and children, were killed when US-led jets targeted residential buildings in the town of Mayadin, located some 45 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital city of Dayr al-Zawr.

The sources added that the death toll was expected to rise as rescue teams were pulling people out of the debris of destroyed buildings, and some of injured locals were in a critical condition.

The report came only a day after 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, stated that the US-led coalition was perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity through aerial bombardment of residential neighborhoods.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also stressed that the military alliance was using internationally-banned white phosphorus munitions in flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.

This file photo shows a view of the building of the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in the capital Damascus.

The letters further pointed to the loss of 78 civilian lives and injury of tens of others, mostly women and children, in the US-led aerial attacks against residential neighborhoods in Raqqah on August 23.

“The Syrian government calls on the Security Council to implement resolutions pertaining to the fight against terrorism, especially Resolution 2253 that covers asset freeze, travel ban, arms embargo and listing criteria for Daesh, al-Qaeda plus associated individuals and groups, and to immediately stop the coalition’s crimes against innocent Syrian civilians,” they read.

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.

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