Syria: Us-led airstrikes killed dozens near Raqqa

Two aerial attacks near Raqqa, Syria in March killed at least 84 civilians, including 30 children, and raise concerns that Us-led coalition forces fighting Daesh did not take adequate precautions to minimize civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said in a report.

The conclusions are based on an on-the-ground investigation into the attacks, hrw.org reported.

The 42-page report documents coalition attacks in March on a school housing displaced families in Mansourah and a market and a bakery in Tabqa, towns west of the city of Raqqa.

Human Rights Watch found that Daesh terrorists were at these sites, but so were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of civilians. The coalition should conduct thorough, prompt, and impartial investigations of the attacks, do everything feasible to prevent similar attacks, and provide compensation or condolence payments to people who suffered losses due to the coalition’s operations, Human Rights Watch said.

“These attacks killed dozens of civilians, including children, who had sought shelter in a school or were lining up buy bread at a bakery,” said Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “If coalition forces did not know that there were civilians at these sites, they need to take a long, hard look at the intelligence they are using to verify its targets because it clearly was not good enough.” Human Rights Watch also investigated three other attacks in the area that resulted in significant civilian casualties.

The attacks took place as coalition forces and allied ground forces carried out a major military offensive to take Raqqa, Daesh’s de facto capital. Human Rights Watch visited the sites from July 1 to 4, interviewing 16 residents including survivors, witnesses, first responders, and medical personnel.

All of those interviewed said that while some Daesh members were at the sites, dozens of civilians were also there. Those interviewed said that the Mansourah school housed a large number of civilians, including many completely unaffiliated with Daesh, and that the Tabqa market, which included a bakery, overwhelmingly served civilians, many of whom were lined up at the bakery at the time of the attack.

The coalition’s Combined Joint Task Force has acknowledged that it attacked Mansourah school, saying it targeted what it believed was a Daesh headquarters and weapons storage facility and that no civilians were present. While the task force says it is still assessing allegations that coalition aircraft killed dozens of civilians in the Tabqa market attack, the circumstances of the attack make it unlikely that anyone else was responsible.