Coalition raids, SDF shelling kill 78 in Syria’s Raqqah

By Levent Tok

ISTANBUL (AA) – At least 78 civilians were killed in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) shelling in Daesh-held Raqqah province in northern Syria on Monday, according to a monitoring group.

The attacks targeted several neighborhoods in the province over past 24 hours, the activist-run group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) said on Twitter.

SDF have been established by PKK/PYD terrorist group for the pronounced goal of fighting Daesh.

In early June, the U.S.-led coalition launched a military campaign aimed at retaking Raqqah, the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate”.

At least 481 civilians were killed in Raqqah in July, according to RBSS.

Last month, the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented the death of 1,400 civilians, including 308 children and 203 women, in Raqqah in the past eight months.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN officials. Assad regime officials, however, put the conflict’s total death toll much lower.