News / Syria

US-led airstrikes kill 11 civilians in eastern, northern Syria

Sunday, 16 April 2017 1:23 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 16 April 2017 3:45 PM ]

This picture, taken on October 9, 2015, shows a Rafale fighter jet on the tarmac of an undisclosed air base purportedly used for raids against Takfiri Daesh militants in Syria. (Photo by AP)

Local sources say nearly a dozen civilians have lost their lives when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh Takfiris in Syria carried out two separate airstrikes against militant-held areas in the country’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr as well as the militant-held northern province of Raqqah.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first aerial attack targeted the village of al-Sakriyah on the eastern outskirts of Dayr al-Zawr, located 450 kilometers northeast of the capital, Damascus, on Sunday.

At least six people were killed and several others injured in the air raid.

The Arabic-language news agency Smart News also reported that US-led military aircraft had launched an attack against the village of Ya’rab in the western suburbs of Raqqah.

The strike claimed the lives of five civilians, who were all members of a family.

The developments came only a few days after the General Command of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces announced in a statement that hundreds of people, including civilians, had been killed after an airstrike by the US-led coalition hit poison gas supplies belonging to Daesh terrorists.

The statement, published by Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said the airstrike had taken place in the eastern village of Hatla, near the city of Dayr al-Zawr, at around 5:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT) on April 12.

It added that a cloud of thick white smoke covered the area after the strike, before it turned yellow. The assault also caused a fierce blaze, which continued until late at night.

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 city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013, and was proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris’ administrative and control tasks the next year.

The US-led coalition has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.

Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored militant and terrorist groups since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated last August that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then.

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