US-led airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group killed at least 52 civilians in a village in northern Syria, however, the strike allegedly failed to kill even a single IS militant, a monitoring group said on Saturday.
“Airstrikes by the coalition early on Friday on the village of Birmahle in Aleppo Province killed 52 civilians,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Rahman said, RT reported. Seven of the victims were children. A further 13 were buried under the rubble, he added.
Friday marked a major escalation in Syrian civilian deaths caused by the airstrike campaign. Since September, the coalition flyovers have resulted in 66 civilian deaths. Friday added another 52. “Birmahle is only civilians, with no IS positions and no clashes,” Abdel Rahman continued, although raids were carried out on a nearby town, where seven militants were killed. US-led air campaign has been pummeling rebel positions since September. They are designed to support Kurdish units in Syria and Iraq, who have proved effective at fighting and stalling militants, as in the embattled Syrian-Turkish border town of Kobane in January.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly pointed out that the bombardments are illegal intervention unauthorized by a UN Security Council resolution, and so violate the sovereignty of Syria. The Syrian president said late March that “the West does not have a political solution to the crisis in Syria,” and is only interested in destroying his government and “turning us into puppets.”
