At least 15 civilians have been killed and dozens wounded in air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria, amid setbacks to attempts by the USA to partner with Russian Federation against the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL) group.
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They are backed by air strikes launched by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says coalition aircraft struck the village of Al-Ghandour on Thursday night.
Manbij has strategic value for another reason: it provides a pathway for Isis to exfiltrate fighters through Turkey to the outside world.
Speaking to ARA News, the British volunteer in the SDF ranks said the US-led coalition can not be accused of killing civilians, “only the militant Islamic State group is to blame for the civilian casualties in Manbij city”.
On Wednesday, the U.S. military announced that it would formally investigate an airstrike on 19 July, in the nearby village of Tokkhar, that may amount to the US’s bloodiest error of the two-year old war.
He added that the credibility assessment into this airstrike continues.
Garver said last week that the jihadists had been mounting exceptionally fierce resistance in Manbij, which is being besieged by US-backed Syrian forces.
Responding to a question about the number of casualties, Garver said the coalition is checking all open and internal sources but according to the coalition, the number of civilians killed ranges from 15 – 75.
Fighters from the US -backed alliance have in recent weeks made incremental advances as they try to flush out the remaining Islamic State fighters in Manbij.
The main Syrian opposition group had urged the US-led coalition to suspend its bombardments following the strikes.
USA officials have gained “better understanding of how (Islamic State militants) orchestrate things like foreign fighters, how they are communicating among themselves, how they are managing their resources”, he said at a security forum in Aspen, Colo.
SANA said that a “massacre” occurred in the village of al-Ghandoura and “on the heels of this appalling crime, ISIS brutally murdered 24 civilians from the locals of al-Bweir village”, which is also located near Manjib.
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Colonel Chris Garver, the us military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters that the USA -backed fighters, made up of Kurdish and Arab forces, collected the material as they traveled throughout villages surrounding Manbij.
