Amnesty International said airstrikes on the al-Tukhar village Monday and Tuesday killed at least 60, according to CNN, while the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said strikes in both places killed 95 people total.
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On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry addressed the UN Secretary-General and the president of the UN Security Council, asking them to take action following the deadly strikes.
Ashton Carter, the USA defense secretary, was concerned about the continuing struggle to take back this part of Syria from Islamic State’s control.
The intensified air strikes were reportedly conducted by the so-called multinational task force against Daesh, a coalition led by the United States which claims to help Kurdish and Arab fighters in their ongoing drive to recapture areas from Daesh in Aleppo. As of Wednesday afternoon, the headline “Dozens of Civilians Reported Dead in U-S”.
French President Francois Hollande disputed that French planes were responsible, while a spokesman for the USA -led coalition said there were “multiple national aircraft” striking in Manbij, making it hard for the Syrian government to detect who conducted specific strikes.
SOHR’s director Rami Abdul Rahman told Agence France-Presse he believed the attacks were a mistake, and that the US -led coalition likely thought the civilians were ISIS fighters. There were conflicting reports about what nations involved in the US-led coalition were involved in the attacks, though France was also repeatedly mentioned.
The US-led coalition has said it is investigating reports of civilian deaths in the strikes.
“But we took this decision now after IS used residents as human shields, after the media pressure on us, and to protect whatever civilians are left in the town”, the commander said on condition of anonymity.
He listed a series of victories made recently in fighting IS, such as the liberation of the Iraqi cities of Hit, Rutbah, and Fallujah, capturing the strategically important Qayyarah West airfield, surrounding the Syrian city of Manbij, and eliminating key IS leaders and its financial base.
“We are aware of reports alleging civilian casualties near Manbij, Syria, recently”.
The SNC insisted that the strikes absolutely have to stop because the huge death toll is serving as a recruitment tool for ISIS and other Islamist factions.
“UNICEF estimates that 35,000 children are trapped in and around Manbij with nowhere safe to go”, the agency’s representative in Syria, Hanaa Singer, said.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk. An global coalition source told Asharq Al-Awsat that “The investigation has not arrived at a conclusion about who is responsible for the civilian deaths and there is no new news with regards to this matter”.
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In his letter, al-Abdah condemned what he called a massacre and said the Syrian people have already suffered enough.
