U.S. LED STRIKES KILLS 52 CIVILIANS IN SYRIA

Idlib, Syria, 14 Rajab 1436/3 May 2015 (MINA) – The death toll from an air strike by U.S.-led forces on the northern Syrian province of Aleppo has risen to 52 including seven children, a group monitoring the conflict said on Saturday.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the British-based Observatory for Human Rights, said the death toll from Friday’s strike was the highest civilian loss in a single attack by U.S. and Arab forces since they started air raids against hardline militant groups in Syria such as ISIL.

U.S.-led forces are also targeting the group in Iraq, World Bulletin quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The Britain-based Observatory said the raid had mistakenly struck civilians in a village on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River in Aleppo province, killing members of at least six families.

U.S.-led strikes had killed at least 66 civilians in Syria from the start of the raids on September 23 until Friday’s strike, which brought the total to at least 118. The campaign has also killed nearly2,000 ISIL fighters, the Observatory said.

The group said at least 13 people were still missing from Friday’s raid.

The United States has said it takes reports of civilian casualties from the U.S.-led strikes seriously and investigates each allegation.

The U.S.-led air strikes have had little impact on the hardline ISIL group, slowing its advances but failing to weaken it in areas it controls. The group has built its own government in Syria’s city of Raqqa, where it is most powerful.

Washington and its allies say their aim is to support what they call moderate rebels fighting against both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIL.

But four years into Syria’s civil war, no side is close to victory. A third of the population has been made homeless and more than 220,000 people [≈ population of Valletta, capital city of Malta] have been killed.

Government forces have seen a series of setbacks on the battlefield recently and fighters have edged closer to Assad’s stronghold in the coastal areas.

Fighting continued on Saturday between government forces and fighters in government-held Latakia, heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite community.

The violence follows advances in neighbouring Idlib province by the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group and Syria’s al Qaeda wing Nusra Front, as well as other allied fighters.

Syria’s state news agency said the army carried out overnight strikes on Nusra positions in Idlib. (T/P011/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)