US Accused of Killing 40 Civilians in Syria

By Erika Solomon, Financial Times

17 May 17

ore than 40 civilians have been killed in a suspected US-led coalition strike in eastern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Colonel John Dorrian, the spokesman for the coalition, denied any of its aircraft had struck the city of al-Bukamal on Monday, the day activists reported more than 23 civilian deaths.

The Britain-based monitoring group with a network of activists in Syria, now says the toll has increased to 42 and may rise again because dozens of wounded civilians were in critical condition and others were buried under the rubble.

It is difficult to verify conflicting reports on such strikes with no foreign media or international monitors in the area.

The US-led campaign against Isis, the jihadi group that holds territory across Syria and Iraq, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months due to the number of civilian casualties. A strike in Mosul in March was reported to have killed 200 people, and a series of raids has been linked to many deaths in Syria. A strike that same month on a mosque in northwestern Syria targeted al-Qaeda militants and is believed to have also killed more than 45 civilians.

Rami Abdelrahman, the head of the monitoring group, stood by local activist reports that a coalition plane was probably behind the strike. Aircraft had been seen approaching from nearby Iraq so were unlikely to be from the Syrian or Russian air forces.

“This is likely the biggest civilian death toll in a single strike since the mosque air strike,” said Mr Abdelrahman. Monday’s strike on al-Bukamal hit a residential building containing many Isis militants, of whom at least 20 killed in addition to civilians.

The US-led coalition against Isis, partnered with local ground forces, has wrested back much of the territory Isis seized in 2014. Isis now controls less than 7 per cent of the territory it initially captured.

Al-Bukamal, on the Syrian-Iraqi border, is in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor, expected to be the jihadi group’s last main stronghold.