plawolf
Lieutenant General
Syrian activists say at least 26 civilians, including children, have been killed in the north-east of the country by air strikes possibly carried out by the US-led coalition.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, says the village of al-Khan, near al-Hawl in Hasakah province, was hit.
A US spokesman in Iraq said the reports would be looked into.
Separately, the Syrian government said three soldiers were killed in a strike.
The Syrian foreign ministry said coalition jets fired missiles at an army camp in Deir al-Zour province, which is largely controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group, and condemned what it called an act of "flagrant aggression".
However the US military near the camp.
Responding to the later report that coalition air strikes may have killed civilians in the strike in Hasakah province, a spokesman said allegations were taken very "seriously", adding that if the information was deemed "credible", an investigation would be launched and the results released publicly.
That area has been the focus of fierce fighting in recent weeks between IS forces and Arab and Kurdish groups, backed by coalition air strikes.
The coalition has been targeting IS militants in Syria since September 2014, and does not co-ordinate its raids with the authorities in Damascus.
Russia has also been bombing IS and other opponents of President Bashar al-Assad since late September.
If coalition jets did hit the Syrian army camp - reported to be close to ground held by IS - it would be the first time such a thing is known to have happened since the US began air strikes in Syria, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut.
The coalition has been stepping up its attacks in recent weeks on IS positions and oil installations in northern and eastern Syria. Broadening the scope brings with it a risk that unintended targets might be hit, our correspondent adds.
Last week, the UK decided to participate in the air strikes in Syria, extending its existing bombing campaign against IS in Iraq.
The that it was seeking $20.1bn (£13.3bn) to fund its humanitarian aid operations in 2016, with two-fifths earmarked for the Syria crisis.
I have noticed something a little 'odd' with the conflict in Syria.
The oped pieces are full of claims of indiscriminate Russian bombings, yet the news sections are full of stories of US led coalition aircraft killing civilians, doctors and Syrian government forces, with not a single example I can think of where it has been proven that Russian bombs killed people other than what they were targeting.
But then, since when has western media pundits let little thinks like facts and the truth get in the way of their ideological rants?
There is no great mystery as to why that is happening - the Russians are working closely with the Syrian military, and probably have their own special forces deployed scouting and painting targets on the ground, whereas the US led coalition is dependent on second or third party intel, which has a poor track record in terms of accuracy. The best smartbomb in the world is going to kill civilians if bad targeting intel told the operator to aim it at civilians.
Last edited:
