A dozen civilians killed in US-led strikes in Syria
January 01, 2018 - A monitoring group said at least a dozen civilians lost their lives when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group carried out a series of aerial assaults in Syria’s eastern province of Deir ez-Zor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday that 12 members of a family, including five women and children, were killed in US-led aerial attacks against civilian areas in Soussa village, according to Press TV.
The Britain-based observatory noted that the death toll is expected to rise as some people had been critically wounded in the airstrikes.
The London-based Airwars organization, which tracks civilian deaths in US-led airstrikes, says a total of at least 5,961 civilians have been killed as a result of the attacks in Iraq and Syria.
The observatory reported on November 23 that 2,759 civilians, including 644 minors and 470 women, had been killed in US-led aerial attacks against civilian areas in Syria over the past 38 months.
The monitoring group added that the US-led air raids had claimed the lives of 98 people, including four children and as many women, between October 23 and November 23 this year.
It said the civilian fatalities had been mostly recorded in the northern provinces of Hasakah, Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib in addition to the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor.
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 achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.
On December 14, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates stated that the US-led coalition is indeed targeting civilian facilities and providing Daesh terrorists with cover.
It noted that Daesh terrorists have been purged from most regions in Syria only through counterterrorism operations conducted by government troops and allied fighters from popular defense groups.
The ministry also criticized the so-called advocates of human rights and rule of law for turning a blind eye to the atrocities the US-led coalition is perpetrating in Raqqa and of Deir ez-Zor provinces.