Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, speaks about the International Syria Support Group’s Humanitarian Access Task Force, at the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, July 28, 2016.
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At least 15 civilians were killed and dozens wounded in air strikes by a US-led coalition in Syria on Thursday, a monitor said.
Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) have pushed back the ultra-hardline Sunni militants into the old quarter after seizing most of the western, eastern and southern sectors of the city, Sharfan Darwish of the SDF-allied Manbij military council told Reuters in Beirut by telephone.
Later in the day, the command said it was assessing another strike Thursday near Manbij, Syria, which may have resulted in additional civilian casualties.
Speaking to reporters at a briefing Wednesday morning, Col. Christopher Gardner, a spokesman for the US’s counter-ISIS campaign, said the allegations of civilian casualties were deemed credible enough to warrant a full investigation.
The U.S.is backing with weapons and airstrikes a coalition of local militias that are seeking to retake Manbij the area from the extremist organization.
Garver said that no “specific lines of connection” had thus far been established between the Manbij training area and recent ISIS terrorist attacks in Europe.
According to Garver, as most of these strikes occur in contested areas, US forces on the ground are not involved in most of the site inspections of those probes.
On Friday, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said a U.S.-led airstrike near Manbej killed 35 civilians, the third civilian casualty to have been caused since May, when the SDF backed the U.S.-led coalition started an offensive against Manbej. “The coalition has to stop targeting neighborhoods with civilians”. We could document [the identity of] 73 civilians including 35 children and 20 women.
He added that rebels have recovered “the massive amounts of intelligence materials”, including four terabytes of digital information, from the parts of the city they cleared of Daesh militants.
“We will aggressively pursue opportunities to build pressure on ISIL in Syria from the south, complimenting our existing and robust efforts”, Carter said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
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The town lies 23 kilometres (14 miles) northwest of Manbij, a strategic waypoint between Turkey and the jihadist stronghold of Raqa.
