World

Coalition hits back over ‘civilian deaths’ in east Syria

November 18, 2018

By Alice Hackman

BEIRUT
— The US-led anti-militant coalition hit back Sunday at reports its airstrikes on a Daesh (the so-called IS) group holdout in eastern Syria had killed civilians, appearing to blame their deaths on regime forces.

The Daesh group overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” in territory it controlled, but has since lost most of it to various offensives.

In war-torn Syria, multiple offensives have now whittled down territory Daesh once controlled to a small pocket in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the Iraqi border.

A Kurdish-led alliance backed by the coalition is battling to expel Daesh from that holdout on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, while Russian-backed regime forces have been fighting the militants west of the river.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said coalition strikes on Saturday killed 43 people, including 36 family members of Daesh fighters in the village of Abu Al-Husn in the militant pocket.

But the coalition denied that its air raids there had killed any non-combatants.

The US envoy for the coalition, Brett McGurk, on Sunday appeared to blame regime forces stationed “across the river” for the civilian casualties.

“Reports of civilian casualties attributed to coalition strikes are false. All other forces should cease uncoordinated fires from across the river immediately,” he said on Twitter.

In a statement late Saturday, the coalition reported 19 coalition strikes on IS targets “free of civilian presence” between late Friday and Saturday afternoon in the militant enclave, which includes the town of Hajin.

The coalition’s “initial assessment following the strikes is that there was no evidence of civilians near the strikes”, it said.

But the coalition “detected a total of ten additional strikes in the same area of Hajin that did not originate from the coalition or partner forces”, it added.

It called “on all other actors to cease uncoordinated fires across the Euphrates”.

The observatory said regime forces and Daesh fighters exchanged fire across the river on Saturday, but pro-government shelling did not hit Abu Al-Husn.

The Britain-based war monitor says it obtains its information from sources inside Syria, and determines who carries out air strikes according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions involved.

The US-led international coalition has consistently denied reports by the observatory in recent weeks that its air raids have killed civilians.

It says it takes allegations of civilian casualties seriously and investigates each one thoroughly.

Syria’s war has killed more than 360,000 people since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Since 2014, the US-led coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility for over 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put the number much higher.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who are backed by coalition airstrikes, launched an assault to seize the eastern pocket of Hajin from Daesh in September.

The SDF assault was slowed by a fierce militant fightback, and then briefly put on hold to protest Turkish shelling of Kurdish militia positions in northern Syria.

An SDF commander on Saturday said his forces were advancing cautiously due to “fields of landmines, trenches, tunnels and barricades set up by Daesh”. — AFP

Reports of civilian casualties attributed to coalition strikes are false. All other forces should cease uncoordinated fires from across the river immediately.

Brett McGurk

US envoy for the coalition


November 18, 2018
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