US-led airstrikes claim more civilian lives in Syria’s Raqqah

A pro-opposition monitoring group says at least 15 civilians have been killed after the US-led coalition, purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, conducted air raids on the Syrian province of Raqqah.

"The strikes this morning hit the village of Zur Shammar, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Raqqah on the southern banks of the Euphrates River," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Wednesday.

He noted that “three children and four women" were among the victims. 

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.

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

Meanwhile, the observatory said that suspected pro-government Russian airstrikes left another 15 civilians dead in a Daesh-held village in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr on Wednesday. There was no official confirmation of the report.

On Tuesday, several civilians lost their lives when the US-led coalition carried out a number of aerial attacks in Syria's troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon admitted that the US-led coalition airstrikes have killed over 600 civilians in Syria and Iraq between August 2014 and May 2017.

SS