The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said coalition airstrikes hit the IS-held village of Al-Ghandour late Thursday.
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The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are facing difficulties in fighting militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria’s border city of Manbij “because ISIS is killing civilians”, the British volunteer Macer Gifford told ARA News. 45 civilians were brutally killed by the Coalition’s air raids in the village and 50 others were injured.
US 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.
The US military Thursday confirmed 14 new deaths resulting from the bombing campaign against the Islamic State group, bringing the total official toll to 55 killed. The Observatory said at least 56 civilians, including 11 children, died as they fled from a village.
The town lies 23km northwest of Manbij, a strategic waypoint between Turkey and the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital for ISIL, also known as ISIS.
Army Col Christopher Garver, the chief spokesman for the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, implied that the non-combatant casualties may have been the result of ISIS using civilians as human shields.
The SOHR and local residents said the air strikes on July 19 had killed dozens of civilians, including children.
Arab and Turkmen civilians that fled Manbij told ARA News on Tuesday that they had no issues with the coalition airstrikes, but that the mines and ISIS sniper fire are making it more hard for them to escape the city.
Syria condemns in the strongest terms targeting innocent civilians and infrastructure by the so-called global coalition and armed terrorist groups, said the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Friday.
“Anyone responsible for violations of global humanitarian law must be brought to justice and victims and their families should receive full reparation”, said Magdalena Mughrabi, interim deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty worldwide.
More importantly, the United States is desperate, whatever the cost in Syrian lives, to prevent Russian-backed Syrian government forces from driving Washington’s Islamist proxy forces out of Aleppo, the most populous Syrian city before the outbreak of the civil war. “We have not seen an increase in civilians leaving the center of the city”.
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Also on Thursday, Russian and Syrian officials announced a plan to allow opposition fighters and civilians in Aleppo safe passage out of the city.
