US-led airstrikes kill more civilians in Syria’s Raqqah: Group

Heavy smoke billows following an airstrike on the western frontline of Raqqah, Syria, on July 17, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

At least 13 civilians, including children and women, have been killed in the Syrian city of Raqqah in airstrikes by the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh, a monitoring group says.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that the victims had been killed in US-led airstrikes conducted during the past 24 hours.

The US and its allies have been bombarding what they say are Daesh positions inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

However, the strikes have on many occasions resulted in civilian casualties. The coalition bombing campaign has also failed to fulfill its declared aim of degrading and destroying Daesh.

On August 4, a report released by the US-led coalition said that its airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria and Iraq had claimed the lives of at least 624 civilians since the start of the campaign in 2014.

However, independent groups contest that figure, putting it at way higher.

Airwars, a UK-based non-profit monitoring group, says at least 4,734 civilians were killed by coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since the aerial bombardment began.

Daesh captured Raqqah in July 2014 and declared the city its “capital” in Syria.