U.S.-led airstrikes in eastern Syria kill at least 35 civilians, activists say

A fresh wave of airstrikes in eastern Syria killed at least 35 civilians including women and children, state media and an observer group reported Friday, and the U.N. human rights chief said civilians are increasingly paying the price of escalating airstrikes against the Islamic State group in the country.

Zeid Ra’ad Hussein’s comments came hours after airstrikes on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, where airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition Thursday night killed 35, many of them family members of Islamic State fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It added that the airstrikes happened at sunset Thursday as people were heading to mosques for evening prayers.

“The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by ISIL, are also falling victim to the escalating airstrikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates of” Raqqah and Deir el-Zour, Hussein said in a statement from Geneva, using another acronym for Islamic State. “Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas.”

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The observatory said 26 people were killed when a four-story building housing the families of seven Islamic State fighters from Syria and North Africa was destroyed in an airstrike. It added that nine other people were killed when an airstrike hit a market in the town, which is close to the Iraqi border.

Syria’s state news agency SANA also said 35 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in the airstrikes.

Reports of deaths among civilians have been on the rise as the fighting against Islamic State intensifies in northern and eastern Syria.

Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based opposition activist who is originally from eastern Syria, said Mayadeen residents were urged through mosque loudspeakers to head to hospitals and clinics to donate blood. He added that more airstrikes occurred in the early hours Friday.

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Hussein, the U.N. human rights chief, in a dramatic appeal on Friday urged all parties conducting strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria to take greater care differentiating between military and civilian targets.

He cited a May 14 strike that reportedly killed 23 farm workers in a rural area of Raqqah province and an airstrike the following day that is said to have killed at least 59 civilians and wounded dozens in the Islamic State-controlled eastern town of Bukamal that is also in in Deir el-Zour province.

Hussein, who is a member of the Jordanian royal family, said the rising toll of civilian casualties suggests that “insufficient precautions” are being taken in the attacks.

Hussein said he was concerned about retaliatory measures taken by Islamic State against civilians suspected of facilitating the airstrikes and reports that civilians were being prevented from leaving Islamic State-controlled areas. The day after the Bukamal incident, Islamic State fighters reportedly cut the throats of eight men at the site of the attack, accusing them of providing coordinates for the air strikes.

Chris Woods, director of the London-based independent monitoring group Airwars, said its staffers have seen an uptick in the air assault on eastern Syria during the last week.

“We remain extremely concerned about Raqqah,” he said, given the activity of U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces allies in the area, which is difficult for reporters and other outside observers to reach due to border restrictions. “We’re worried about their lack of local knowledge and that rules have been changed to allow them to make more strikes. We’re also worried about the lack of public scrutiny.”

Woods said they have seen more airstrikes in recent days, including strikes by Iraqi warplanes, near Abu Kamal, also in the Deir el-Zour area by the Iraqi border, and around Raqqah — two or three strikes a day for the last week.

As the Raqqah offensive nears, he said, there’s also concern about the Mosul offensive drawing to a close to the east.

“Now that really in Mosul we’re down to the last neighborhoods in the Old City, we’ve seen very little reporting of civilian casualties in recent days,” Woods said of the coalition. “We’ve been extremely concerned about a final assault because all indications are they will not change their tactics of extreme air support.”

The U.S. military says 352 civilians have been killed in coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since the air war against Islamic State was launched in August 2014 — far fewer than Airwars’ estimate of 3,294.

U.S. investigators recommended in a report Thursday that the Pentagon intensify its investigations into whether its daily bombing runs over Iraq and Syria are inadvertently killing civilians.

The report also advocated that the two-person team investigating civilian casualties for the coalition be expanded and that teams of investigators begin visiting the sites where residents say civilians have been injured and killed by airstrikes.

Under the existing system, the coalition investigates civilian casualties based on reports from its staff, the news media, social media and local and international monitoring groups. Investigators are not required to visit the scene of strikes, speak with victims or other witnesses.

Staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Riyadh contributed to this report.

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