Garver said the information has not provided links to those involved in attacks on Western targets directed or inspired by IS, an acronym for the Islamic State. Since the offensive began in late May, the coalition has conducted more than 500 strikes in the area.
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The information was captured in Manbij in Northern Syria after the terror group was pushed back from the city.
“They were killed when the warplanes of the global coalition committed a massacre in the town of al-Ghandour in the northwestern countryside of Manbij city east of Aleppo province, where the warplanes targeted areas in the town of al-Ghandour, which is more than 23 kilometers away from Manbij city, and the death toll is expected to rise because there are some people in critical situation”, the Observatory said on its English-language website on Thursday.
“If the information supporting the report is determined to be credible, we will then determine the next appropriate step”.
Garver said last week that the jihadists had been mounting exceptionally fierce resistance in Manbij, which is being besieged by US-backed Syrian forces.
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”.
Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, dig a body out from the rubble of a building following a reported airstrike on the rebel-held district of al-Fardous in the northern city of Aleppo. Most of the civilian casualties come from airstrikes carried out in February-April of the current year.
Woods is encouraged that the Pentagon has quickly acknowledged the reports of the deaths, but says it’s often six-months before a military probe is completed.
“That’s our job”, de Mistura said of the corridors plan at a press conference in Geneva.
If the airstrikes prove to be from U.S. jets, the Manbij incident would be the highest civilian death toll for a single strike operation in the two-year war against ISIS.
Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch was left reeling on Friday after its military chief was killed in an apparent army air strike, adding to confusion over the future path of the most powerful group opposing both President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State.
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The strikes come in the context of the USA support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which has besieged Manbej in a bid to flush out IS fighters.
