64 civilians killed in Syria strike
Amnesty slams ‘ crimes against humanity’ in Aleppo
Beirut/ London/ Geneva, May 5: A Syrian rights group reported on Monday that the death toll of civilians purportedly killed in airstrikes by the US- led coalition on a village controlled by the ISIS group in Syria has risen to 64, including 31 children, as the US military said it is assessing whether to launch a formal investigation into the claim.
US Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said that so far there was no information to indicate there were civilians present in the village. He said US Central Command is assessing the claims of civilian deaths in order to determine if a formal investigation should be opened. Earlier, US Central Command spokesman Maj. Curtis Kellogg said there was no indication that any civilians were killed in the airstrikes on Thursday night on the northern Syrian village of Bir Mahli.
The Britain- based based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which first reported the civilian deaths, said on Monday at least 64 civilians were killed in the airstrikes on the remote village near the border city of Kobane. Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said the dead include 16 girls and 15 boys, as well as 19 women. He said the airstrikes hit civilians, all of them Arabs, in their homes. The Observatory relies on a network of activists on the ground inside Syria.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International on Tuesday slammed the Syrian government and rebel groups for terrorising civilians in the northwest city of Aleppo amid “widespread atrocities” which the rights group said amounted to war crimes.
Amnesty especially deplored the barrel bombs dropped from government helicopters, which it said had killed over 11,000 people in Syria since 2012 and 3,000 in the province of Aleppo last year alone.
The UN’s peace envoy for Syria on Tuesday launched wide- ranging consultations in Geneva with regional and domestic players, including Iran, in a bid to revive stalled talks to end the conflict.