Coalition aircraft given wrong coordinates, US officials say

Several nations have lent their air power to the U.S.-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State group, and it wasn’t clear which air force was behind the errant strike.

BEIRUT — A misdirected airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling the Islamic State group in northern Syria, the U.S. military said Thursday.

U.S. Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, for the strike on Tuesday that was intended to target IS militants south of their Tabqa stronghold, near the extremists’ de facto capital, Raqqa. The strike hit an SDF position instead.

Several nations have lent their air power to the U.S.led coalition to defeat the Islamic State group, and it wasn’t clear which air force was behind the errant strike.

The SDF acknowledged the strike, saying a number of its fighters were killed and wounded. On Thursday, the group held funerals for 17 of its fighters in the border town of Tal al-Abyad, the SDF-linked Hawar news agency said, though it did not say whether they were killed in the friendly fire incident.

An activist-run group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, said three days of mourning had been declared for the town. The Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 25 SDF fighters were killed in the past two days of battle.

The SDF, meanwhile, announced the launch of a new phase of its campaign to retake Raqqa. The Kurdish fighters, with U.S.-led air and ground support, have surrounded Tabqa, some 25 miles southwest of the city and are working to clear Islamic State militants out of Jalab Valley, north of Raqqa.

The SDF says it wants to isolate Raqqa before attacking it. Its closest position is less than five miles northeast of the city. But the countryside south of Raqqa is still under IS control.

Meanwhile, preparations had been underway Thursday for the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents from two pro-government Shiite villages in northern Syria, Foua and Kfarya, and the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani, near Damascus.

A local official involved in the planned evacuations from the four besieged areas said buses will start moving after sunrise today. Dozens of buses entered the four areas, but no one had boarded them by late Thursday, according to opposition activists in Madaya and Zabadani.

Hakim Baghdadi, a member of the relief committee for Foua and Kfarya, said that evacuations would begin after sunrise today because it is safer.

If the evacuations go through, they would be the first in a number of missions stretching over two months to evacuate some 30,000 Syrians from besieged areas, in a deal struck by rebels and the government. It is unclear whether they will ever be able to return to their homes.

Civilians are being given the option to stay, but activists and doctors said it’s too dangerous for medical workers to do so. Since the beginning of the conflict, the government has targeted medical workers with detention, torture, and bombardment.