Civilian death toll spikes
250 US-LED STRIKES KILL AT LEAST 167, INCLUDING 19 CHILDREN Battle intensifies as 60% of city is reclaimed from Islamic State.
Dozens of civilians have died in two days of intense US-led strikes on Raqa, a monitor said yesterday, as fighting to retake the Syrian city from jihadists nears its densely populated centre. At least 250 US-led coalition strikes have hit Raqa city and the surrounding area in the last week, a coalition spokesperson said, as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) press an offensive in the city.
The SDF has so far captured just under 60% of Raqa, monitors say, leaving jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group in control of about 10km2 in the heart of the city.
But as clashes approach central Raqa, monitors and activists have reported scores killed in intensifying coalition bombardment of the city.
On Monday, US-led air strikes killed at least 42 civilians in neighbourhoods under IS control, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
Nineteen children and 12 women were among the dead.
That takes to 167 the number of civilians killed in coalition strikes since August 14, after the Observatory said at least 27 were killed on Sunday. “The tolls are high because the air strikes are hitting neighbourhoods in the city centre that are densely packed with civilians,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“There are buildings full of civilians who are trying to get away from the front lines.”
The coalition says avoiding civilian casualties is its “highest priority”.
Coalition spokesperson Colonel Ryan Dillon said the latest allegations of civilian deaths would be investigated.
He said the coalition had stepped up its strikes in Raqa since a US-backed offensive successfully ousted IS from Mosul in neighbouring Iraq, freeing up aircraft.
The coalition, which operates in both countries, earlier this month acknowledged the deaths of 624 civilians in its strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014, but rights groups say the number is higher.
Asked about the escalating civilian tolls in recent days, SDF spokesperson Talal Sello blamed IS for using civilians as “human shields”. – AFP