UN fails to condemn US for civilian deaths in Syria

The United Nations has failed to denounce Washington for the death of over 100 civilians in the latest US-led coalition airstrikes in eastern Syria, merely urging air forces operating in the Arab country to be more cautious.

"The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Dayr al-Zawr and Raqqah suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein said in a statement on Friday.

Zeid's remarks came a day after the US-led airstrikes in Mayadin town of Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr killed at least 117 civilians, mostly women and children, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Relatives of Takfiri Daesh terrorists were reportedly among the dead.

"There are multiple air forces operating in this part of Syria including the (US-led) coalition, mainly the coalition," Zeid's spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva briefing on Friday, adding, "I can't begin to identify who is responsible."

Zeid said that on May 15 over two dozen farm workers, mostly women, had been killed in airstrikes on a village in Syria’s Raqqah Province and nearly 60 civilians had lost their lives in air raids on residential areas of Dayr al-Zawr.

The US-led coalition has denied having a role in the airstrikes.

The UN human rights chief referred to the plight of civilians trapped in Daesh-held areas. He said some people had been executed at the site of airstrikes after being accused of providing coordinates for the air raids.

"Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas," he said.

SS