News / Syria

US-led coalition says 61 Iraqi, Syrian civilians killed in its fresh strikes

Friday, 01 September 2017 2:25 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 01 September 2017 2:42 PM ]

Buildings damaged in US-led airstrikes against the militant-held northern Syrian city of Raqqah are pictured on August 19, 2017 as fighting continues between US-backed militiamen from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Daesh Takfiri militants. (Photo by Reuters)

The US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claims that dozens of people have lost their lives as a result of fresh aerial attacks by the military alliance against alleged militant positions in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The coalition said on Friday it had confirmed another 61 likely civilian deaths caused by its strikes in both conflict-ridden Arab countries.

The figure soared to 685 the number of civilians the Western contingent has acknowledged killing since the United States and some of its allies started their aerial bombardment campaign three years ago.

In July, the coalition said in a statement that it had investigated 37 reports of civilian casualties. It claimed that only 13 of the reports were credible, adding there were an estimated 61 unintentional civilian deaths.

The statement further alleged that the US-led force is looking into another 455 reports of civilian casualties caused by its artillery or airstrikes.

On May 25, the Pentagon acknowledged that at least 105 civilians had lost their lives in a US airstrike against Mosul’s western al-Jadida district on March 17. Iraq's Kurdish-language Rudaw television network, however, put the death toll at 237 then.

A formation of US Navy F-18E Super Hornets flies over northern Iraq in this file photo. (Photo by Reuters)

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 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 24, 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.

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