Coalition denies deadly Deir Ezzor strikes
BEIRUT: The US-led coalition battling Daesh in Syria and Iraq has denied that it had carried out deadly airstrikes around the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.
The strikes on Deir Ezzor, where Syrian regime forces backed by Russia have seized most of the city from Daesh, were reported late on Monday by a monitoring group, a local official and the regime’s television.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 civilians were killed in strikes by unidentified aircraft in the Al-Qusur neighborhood, in the west of the city.
A local official said 14 people were killed and blamed coalition strikes.
“The allegation that a coalition strike may have killed 14 civilians and wounded 32 others in Deir Ezzor is false,” coalition spokesman Ryan Dillon said.
“Russian-backed pro-regime forces are conducting operations in Deir Ezzor and the coalition does not support pro-regime operations,” he said.
Dillon said the coalition had carried out only one strike in the area in the last two months, on Sept. 16 in support of US-backed forces fighting Daesh east of the city.
In a separate development, media reported that a British man fighting alongside Kurds against Daesh had been killed during the push to liberate Raqqa.
Sniper Jac Holmes, from Bournemouth in southern England, who was fighting with the Kurdistan People’s Protection Units, was clearing mines on Monday when he died, his mother told the Press Association.
“He stood up for what he believed in and he had the courage of his convictions to go out and do something where he thought that the West were not doing enough,” said Angie Blannin.
“To defeat ISIS (Daesh) he felt that it was not just a Syrian problem, or Middle Eastern problem, it was a world problem,” she said of the 24-year-old.
Kurdish officials told her that her son had been clearing mines in the city, despite being a sniper.
“It is all a bit sketchy but I am guessing he stepped on a land mine or one went off close to him, or it was a suicide vest.”