Syria: US-led coalition kills 3,700+ civilians in 5 yrs

By Adham Kako

ANKARA (AA) – More than 3,700 civilians have been killed in Syria since the U.S.-led Global Coalition against Daesh launched an anti-terror campaign in 2014, a U.K.-based human rights group said on Monday.

In a report marking the fifth year of the U.S.-led campaign in Syria, the Syrian Human Rights Network (SNHR) said anti-Daesh coalition’s attacks claimed the lives of 3,737 civilians, including some 900 children and 650 women, in the civil war-torn country since Sept. 23, 2014.

The military intervention killed some 250 civilians in the first year, 400 in the second year, 750 in the third year, 430 in the fourth year and 200 others in the fifth year, the SNHR said.

The northern city of Raqqa was where most of the civilian casualties were reported due to the attacks of the coalition forces supporting the terrorist group YPG/PKK.

The civilian casualties were also reported in Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, al-Hasakah, Idlib, Homs, and Daraa.

According to the report, the coalition forces caused massacres 172 times in five years.

The anti-Daesh coalition also targeted civilian settlements in several attacks.

The bombings targeted schools and marketplaces at least 181 times, the SNHR said.

The attacks forced more than 560 thousand civilians to leave their homes in Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Al Hasakah.

Turkey has been the main route for refugees trying to cross into Europe, especially since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Some 268,000 irregular migrants were held in Turkey in 2018, according to the Interior Ministry.

*Writing by Dilara Hamit