US-led airstrikes kill 15 civilians, including kids, in Syria

Airstrikes carried out by a US-led coalition purporting to fight Daesh have killed at least 15 civilians, including three children, in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group says.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit four Daesh-controlled villages in Hasakah Province on Thursday, killing the civilians. It said the death toll could rise.

The group also said that US-led airstrikes had also killed another eight civilians in a village in the same province on Wednesday. Separately, 15 civilians had been killed in US-led strikes on the town of al-Shadadi on Tuesday.

With the Thursday fatalities, the group said, the US-led coalition was now responsible for a total of 38 civilian deaths in Hasakah only since Tuesday.

The US-led coalition has been conducting air raids against what are said to be the Daesh terrorists inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

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

MG