Fresh US-led airstrikes leave 10 Syrian civilians dead in Raqqah

Nearly a dozen civilians have been killed after the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group carried out a series of aerial assaults in Syria’s militant-held northern city of Raqqah.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 10 civilians, including six men and four women, were killed on Tuesday as US-led aerial attacks targeted residential neighborhoods the city, located about 455 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.

The Britain-based monitoring group said the victims were all members of an internally displaced family from the ancient city of Palmyra.

The Observatory noted that the latest fatalities take to 816 the number of civilians, who have lost their lives in US-led airstrikes against Raqqah between June 5 and August 28. The figure includes 204 children and 131 women.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two separate letters sent to UN Secretary General António Guterres and rotating President of the UN Security Council Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta on August 24, stated that the US-led coalition was perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity through aerial bombardment of residential neighborhoods.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also stressed that the military alliance was using internationally-banned white phosphorus munitions in flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.

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. 

EA