Dozens killed in US-led strike

Syrian prison run by Islamic State hit.

Militants our only target, says Washington after hitting IS-run prison BEIRUT: US-led coalition air strikes killed nearly 60 people at a Syrian prison run by the Islamic State group, a monitor said, as Washington insisted the militants remain its only target.

The coalition has been hitting IS in Syria and Iraq since mid-2014 but has also been involved in recent confrontations with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, raising fears of the United States being drawn into Syria’s civil war.

Monday’s strikes hit an IS-run jail in Syria’s Mayadeen at dawn, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the strikes killed 42 prisoners and 15 militants in Mayadeen, a large town in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

Most of Deir Ezzor province is controlled by the militants and it has been the target of air strikes by both the coalition and the Syrian army and its Russian ally.

The US-led coalition said last week that it had killed IS’ top cleric Turki Binali in a May 31 strike on Mayadeen.

The militants, who seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq three years ago, are under pressure in both countries.

US-backed forces are pushing to oust them from their last major urban strongholds, Raqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

But Washington’s involvement in Syria has also become increasingly complex.

On Monday the White House said preparations were underway by the regime for a chemical weapons attack, similar to those undertaken ahead of an apparent chemical attack on a rebel-held town in April.

The statement drew condemnation from Moscow, a key Assad ally, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling journalists: “We con- sider such threats against the Syrian leadership to be unacceptable.”

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking to reporters on a military plane late Monday as he headed for meetings in Europe, insisted Washington was not taking sides in Syria’s civil war.

US forces will not fire on targets “unless they are the enemy, unless they are ISIS”, he said, using another acronym for IS.

“We just refuse to get drawn into a fight there in the Syria civil war, we try to end that one through diplomatic engagement.”

Syria’s war began in March 2011 with anti-government protests and after a regime crackdown evolved into a complicated, multi-front war that has killed more than 320,000 people and forced millions from their homes.

We just refuse to get drawn into a fight there in the Syria civil war, we try to end that one through diplomatic engagement. -Jim Mattis