UN condemns killings of children in northern Syria

On Thursday, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) gave ISIS a 48 hours ultimatum to leave the city of Manbij with their light weapons, in order to stop the urban battle and protect civilians.

Asked about the Al-Tukhar raids, the US-led coalition said it had recently “conducted air strikes near Manbij” and was looking into the reports of civilian casualties.

The US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, launched an offensive at the end of May to seize the last territory held by IS insurgents on Syria’s frontier with Turkey.

“One concern is that usually one would expect that a party to a conflict would be able to improve its civilian casualty, but it looks like the U.S.-led coalition is worsening, particularly in the Manbij area”, Neil Sammonds, Amnesty International’s lead researcher on Syria, told ABC News. That’s because members of the anti-ISIS coalition performed powerfully in this newly-released video from July 5.

Conflicting numbers in the aftermath of attacks are not uncommon in Syria.

However, General Votel stressed that the alleged coalition airstrikes that killed civilians is no indictment of the intelligence community.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are feared to be trapped in Aleppo, Manbij and other Syrian towns as fighting between Government and opposition forces continues around them. It said the strike was conducted by French warplanes.

Airstrikes, operating in support of the SDF, struck the Tokhar area of Manbij, killing at least 56 civilians earlier in the week.

In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on a recent visit to Russia reiterated the West’s stance that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power. They must take all precautions to check if civilians are there and should not use weaponry which is likely to cause damage to areas where more civilians are likely to be killed.

It is worth mentioning that Manbij is only 30 minutes from the Turkish border and is a significant strategic prize for anti-IS forces.

Some people on Twitter are outraged at the reports of civilians killed by air strikes in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called the incident a “massacre” and said still more civilians were injured.

“There must be a prompt, independent and transparent investigation to determine what happened, who was responsible, and how to avoid further needless loss of civilian life”, said interim Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program Magdalena Mughrabi on the Amnesty International website.

“Anyone responsible for violations of global humanitarian law must be brought to justice and victims and their families should receive full reparation”.

“But we took this decision now after IS used residents as human shields, after the media pressure on us, and to protect whatever civilians are left in the town”, he said on condition of anonymity.