US-led 🇺🇸 strikes ✈️ killed 84 civilians in Syria 🇸🇾

Two US-led coalition air strikes on towns held by so-called Islamic State in Syria in March killed at least 84 civilians, Human Rights Watch says.

In a report published on Monday, Human Rights Watch said it had investigated several alleged air strikes during a visit in early July to areas of northern Syria now controlled by a US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance.

In two of the deadliest incidents, which took place as SDF fighters sought to encircle the city of Raqqa, coalition aircraft allegedly struck the Badia School in Mansoura on 20 March, and a market and a bakery in Tabqa on 22 March.

Sixteen survivors, witnesses, first responders and medical personnel told HRW that the school in Mansoura was home to a large number of displaced civilians, and that the Tabqa market overwhelmingly served civilians, many of whom were queuing at a bakery at the time of the air strike.

"If coalition forces did not know that there were civilians at these sites, they need to take a long, hard look at the intelligence they are using to verify its targets because it clearly was not good enough," said Ole Solvang, HRW's deputy emergencies director.

UCJ, UNILORIN.