“[Syria] condemns, with the strongest terms, the two bloody massacres perpetrated by the French and US warplanes and those affiliated to the so-called global coalition which send their missiles and bombs to the civilians instead of directing them to the terrorist gangs”, the ministry said in a letter sent to the United Nations this week.
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Coalition airstrikes in Syria may have killed as many as 160 civilians. They also said that on Monday the U.S. war planes killed around 20 people, mainly women and children, while many more were injured in and around the city of Manbij.
Opposition-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo have been effectively under siege for the past two weeks, after government forces severed the only remaining supply route into the east of the city.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday that the US-led coalition would investigate the reports of civilian casualties.
French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that he has no precise information on the French air forces’ responsibility for the civilian deaths in the Manbij area. And that they were from coalition planes.
The U.S. military is conducting a “credibility assessment” that is due less than a week and a half from Friday, Garver added, saying it’s aimed at determining whether the civilian casualty claims warrant a formal investigation into the incident.
On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry wrote to United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki Moon and the security council, demanding they condemn the bombing of al-Tukhar and blaming France.
Mr Al Abdah said 125 civilians had been killed in US-led strikes around Manbij, characterising the strikes as crimes.
Another Manbij-affiliated Facebook page posted photographs of protesters holding a rally in the Syrian western city of Azaz. One young boy held a placard reading: “Our children will tell God everything”.
Amnesty International looked into 11 USA -led airstrikes over the last two years and found that they resulted in the killing of 250 to 300 civilians, but the US recognized only five civilian deaths in those incidents, he said.
The UN children agency UNICEF and UK-based rights group Amnesty International have sharply criticized the airstrikes.
The statement also called for civilians to try to leave the town or distance themselves from areas where clashes are taking place.
“No matter where they are in Syria or under whose control they live – absolutely nothing justifies attacks on children”, Hanaa Singer, UNICEF representative in Syria, said in a statement.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk. They must take all precautions to check if civilians are there and should not use weaponry which is likely to cause damage to areas where more civilians are likely to be killed.
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“They blatantly call it “collateral damage” when it is the lives of the Syrian people which are being lost here,” he said to RT.
