U.S.-led airstrikes kill 20 in Syria
BEIRUT — An overnight airstrike likely carried out by the United States-led coalition struck an eastern Syrian town held by the Islamic State group, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, opposition activists said. Another airstrike, this one during the day, hit a rebel-held village in the northwest on Tuesday, killing a woman and nine children.
The activists said the late Monday strike on the town of Boukamal, on the Iraqi border, was similar to airstrikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition that has been targeting IS in both Syria and Iraq. Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have killed dozens of civilians over the past several weeks as the battle against the extremists intensifies.
The new airstrike purportedly took place as the U.S.-led coalition came under fire from Human Rights Watch over another deadly incident in northern Syria last month, in which dozens of people were killed.
The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said the strike of Boukamal killed six people and wounded 15 — all of them women and children. It did not say whether any IS fighters were also killed.
The U.S. military’s regional command, CENTCOM, said in response to a query by The Associated Press that it was aware of the reports and was looking into them.
Activists gave different casualty tolls. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Boukamal strike killed 15 civilians, including women and children, as well as three Iraqi IS fighters.
Opposition activist Omar Abu Laila, who currently lives in Europe but is from the province where the strike took place and maintains contacts there, said 10 people were killed, including an Iraqi family of four.
He said IS cordoned off the area and cut all telecommunications after the strike, which heavily damaged at least four buildings.
“The number of casualties is huge,” Abu Laila said, adding that mosque loudspeakers were used to urge people to head to hospitals to donate blood.
IS used to control wide parts of Syria and Iraq, where the group declared a caliphate in 2014. Over the past year the extremists have suffered a string of defeats at the hands of an array of Syrian and Iraqi forces.
On Tuesday in northern Syria, an airstrike on the village of Maaret Harmeh killed 10 people and wounded several others, activists said. The Observatory said those killed were all relatives. The Civil Defence, another activist group, said 10 people were also wounded in that attack.
Maaret Harmeh is close to the town of Khan Sheikhoun where a chemical weapons attack killed nearly 90 people on April 4.
The United States has accused the Syrian government of being behind the attack, and fired missiles at a Syrian army base in retaliation. Syria denies the charges.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said in a report Tuesday that U.S. forces appear to have failed to take necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties in a March 16 airstrike that killed dozens of people in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.