A coalition airstrike reported on Tuesday that killed at least 85 civilians-one more than died in the Nice attack in France last week-wasn’t featured at all on the front pages of two of the top USA national newspapers, the New York Times and LA Times, and only merited brief blurbs on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, with the actual stories buried on pages A-16 and A-15, respectively.
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Manbij sits on IS’s main supply route between Syria and neighbouring Turkey and has been the target of a USA -backed offensive by a Kurdish-Arab alliance of fighters since May 31.
The US-led coalition has been backing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces, to capture Manbij since last May.
A statement by the group called it a last-ditch effort to protect civilian lives and the “only and last” opportunity for ISIS militants to “leave the town alive”.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 56 civilians, of which at least 11 were children, were killed in the northern countryside of Manbij, with “tens of others” injured.
A Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter walks in the silos and mills of Manbij after the SDF took control of it, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, July 1, 2016.
While Western coalitions continue their offensive against the city, residents of Manbij are caught and trapped by ISIS forces.
There have already been protests in some parts of Aleppo province.
Another Manbij-affiliated page posted photographs of demonstrators gathering yesterday in the rebel-held town of Azaz, further west, to condemn the raids.
And there has also been global consternation, with the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF saying it had received reports up to 20 children might have been killed in the incident.
The agency said as many as 20 children may have been killed in the strikes.
Tuesday’s strikes prompted Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, to call for a halt to air operations against ISIL while an investigation was conducted.
The Pentagon has said it’s investigating the reports.
General Joe Votel, head of US Central Command, said the Manbij operation was a “very hard fight” with IS jihadists appearing in various locations.
“It is an extraordinarily dynamic situation up around Manbij right now, as we talked about a little bit earlier”.
“And so when it’s a dynamic situation like that… we have to respond”. At the same time, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday that the coalition is aware of and will look into the report of civilian deaths following recent airstrikes near Manbij.
Under the cover of US-led coalition air strikes, they succeeded in encircling Manbij within days and entered the town’s outskirts in late June.
It said SDF fighters had seized a southern district of the town overnight.
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The Syrian conflict began with mostly unarmed demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 but quickly turned into a civil war.
