Civilians killed in U.S.-led air strikes in Syria: Human Rights groups

New York, July 20 (ANI): Several Human rights groups have said that a U.S- led coalition in Syria has killed more than 100 civilians and wounded dozens more in airstrikes in and around the ISIS-controlled city of Manbij, since June. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Manbij area is the last large tract of land along Syria's northern border with Turkey under ISIS control, reports CNN. Manbij has become the site of intense fighting since a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militia entered the city in June and is considered a strategic supply point between Raqqa and Turkey. Several human rights group said that airstrikes this week killed dozens of people, pushing the death toll past 100. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the United Kingdom, yesterday said that airstrikes killed 56 people, including 11 children, in the countryside north of Manbij. The Amnesty International, citing accounts from local activists and documentary evidence said that airstrikes on nearby al-Tukhar village on Monday and Tuesday killed at least 60 people. Meanwhile, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said that 95 people were killed in the strikes in Manbij and al-Tukhar. The human rights groups condemned the attacks and asked the coalition forces to step up efforts to prevent civilian deaths. "The bombing of al-Tukhar may have resulted in the largest loss of civilian life by coalition operations in Syria. There must be a prompt, independent and transparent investigation to determine what happened, who was responsible, and how to avoid further needless loss of civilian life," CNN quoted Magdalena Mughrabi, interim deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International as saying. Spokesman for the U.S. military program charged with fighting ISIS, Colonel Chris Garver, confirmed that airstrikes were conducted on Monday near Manbij and that the was aware of the allegations and reviewing information. The U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces aims to keep ISIS fighters from crossing into Turkey and ensure that foreign fighters cannot enter Syria. It was launched in June this year. (ANI)