US bombs accused of killing civilians in Iraq, Syria

March 25, 2017
Issue 

About 230 people were reported killed in what was thought to be a US-led coalition air strike on an ISIS-held neighbourhood in Mosul, The Independent said on March 22.  

It comes after the US-led coalition targeting the Islamic State (ISIS) is being blamed for an air strike on a school where families had sought shelter near the northern Syrian town of Raqqa, Common Dreams said on March 21.

The monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 33 people died as a result of the Raqqa strike.

In Modul, a correspondent for Rudaw said that 137 people — most believed to be civilians — died when a bomb hit a single building in al-Jadida, in the western side of the city on Thursday. Another 100 were killed nearby. 

“Some of the dead were taking shelter inside the homes,” Hevidar Ahmed said from the scene.

A spokesperson for Central Command, which coordinates US military action in Iraq, told The Independent they were aware of the loss of civilian life as reported by Rudaw and the information had been passed on to the civilian casualty team for “further investigation”.

In Syria, those using the school in the village of Mansoura as shelter “were displaced civilians from Raqqa, Aleppo, and Homs,” Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman told Agence France-Presse.

“They’re still pulling bodies out of the rubble until now,” he said. “Only two people were pulled out alive.”

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