70 civilians killed, injured as Us-led coalition warplanes pound Syrian town
Dozens of civilians, mostly women and children, have lost their lives and sustained injuries when the Us-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group launched a fresh round of airstrikes against an area in Syria’s troubled eastern province of Deir ez-zor.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA on Tuesday that the aerial attacks targeted the outskirts of Al-baghouz town, leaving 70 people dead and injured as a result, Press TV reported.
The sources added that the airstrikes hit a makeshift camp, which internally displaced people had set up in the area after fleeing fierce exchanges of gunfire between the Us-led coalition and the last remnants of the Daesh terrorist group.
They said that the death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are in critical condition, and they cannot be moved since the area is under heavy shelling.
On Saturday, Us-led military aircraft bombarded Al-tayyaneh town in Syria’s Deir ez-zor Province, leaving three people dead and several others injured.
The aerial assaults damaged some private and public property in the targeted area as well.
The Us-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes and operations against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a United Nations mandate.
The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.
Syria has on numerous occasions condemned airstrikes by the Us-led coalition, asking the UN to force Washington and its allies to put an end to their military intervention in the Arab country.
The US military said Tuesday it struck a mosque that had allegedly been used as a Daesh control center.
The Us-led coalition said warplanes struck the mosque in the small town of Baghouz on Monday in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. It said the airstrike occurred as Daesh was using the mosque to direct attacks and employ suicide car bombs against the SDF.
Hundreds of mostly battle-hardened foreign Daesh members are believed to remain in Baghouz and nearby areas, where the SDF began its final push Saturday after months of fighting. Daesh has been fighting back with suicide car bombs, sniper fire and booby traps, and has been using civilians as human shields, slowing the Us-backed armed groups’ advance.