The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group aims to open a new front in southern Syria in addition to its ongoing offensive in the northeast, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.
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It’s not just the Tokhar event of last week, but we’ve actually logged more than 40 alleged civilian casualty events over the last couple of months, just in the small area, reportedly from the very intense coalition campaign to liberate that town from so-called Islamic State.
It was unclear if the Al-Ghandour attacks involved an air strike reported yesterday by US Central Command, which is responsible for US forces in the Middle East.
After helping Iraqi forces capture Fallujah from ISIS in western Iraq last month, the us -led coalition’s focus has been on liberating what is known as the “Manbij pocket” from ISIS.
Al-Mayadeen TV said the airstrike is the third to hit civilians in Manbej since the SDF and the US started operations against IS there in May.
The U.S. military is looking into whether a coalition airstrike in northern Syria caused civilian casualties.
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Late night airstrikes in the city killed at least six people, the activist-run Aleppo Media Center said Friday.
More than 280,000 have been killed and millions displaced in Syria’s five-year conflict.
“Even back in early June, we were getting very bad reports and significant civilian casualties, so it is simply not credible for the coalition to suggest that they were unaware of this”.
“We can confirm the Coalition conducted airstrikes in the area in the last 24 hours”.
“The biggest challenge the SDF has found is that ISIS is keeping civilians in the city centre and not allowing them to leave”, he said.
In a teleconferenced news briefing from Baghdad, Garver said coalition forces have recovered 4 terabytes – about 10,000 pieces of information, such as laptops, thumb drives, textbooks and notes – from the battlefield encircling Manbij.
He also updated reporters about the fight against Daesh in and around Manbij, a key city which Syrian Arab Coalition, and some other elements under the umbrella of Syrian Democratic Forces try to capture from the militant group.
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“The ministry cited striking similarities between the massacres committed by the US-led Coalition and the terrorist organizations in an attempt to exacerbate the situation across Syria following the Syrian army’s recent wins in Aleppo city”, continued the letter to the United Nations quoted by the agency.
