Catenaccio-
25-06-2017, 23:21
The US-led coalition killed nearly 500 civilians in one month in its pursuit of Islamic State militants in Syria, in what the United Nations has called a “staggering loss of life”.
Some 470 civilians, including 137 children, died in air strikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil)-held cities of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria between May 23 and June 23.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights SOHR) monitor said the period saw the highest civilian death toll in coalition raids for a single month since they began on September 23, 2014. The figure was more than double the previous 30-day toll.
Observers claim the number is higher than those killed by Russian strikes, Isil and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the same period.
Rami Abdel Rahman, SOHR’s director, said that the new deaths brought the overall civilian toll from the coalition's campaign in Syria to 1,953, including 456 children and 333 women.
Human rights and monitoring groups have warned for months of the rising human cost of the coalition’s air war, particularly as the battle for Isil’s so-called capital of Raqqa intensifies.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/23/us-led-coalition-kills-nearly-500-civilians-one-month-syria/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw