CAIRO – At least 1,171 people have been killed in Syria in airstrikes of the U.S.-led international coalition that began targeting the Islamic State jihadist group on Sept. 23, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Tuesday.
SOHR explained that 1,046 IS fighters, most of them foreigners, were killed in the international coalition’s air raids on areas such as Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Deir al-Zour, al-Hasakah and al-Raqqa.
At least 52 civilians were among the dead, including eight children and five women, in attacks in the provinces of al-Hasakah, Deir al-Zour, al-Raqqa, Aleppo and Idleb.
Meanwhile, at least one member of another Islamist insurgent brigade who was held captive by the IS, was killed in an airstrike against the radical organization’s headquarters in the town of Madan, in the countryside near the city of Al-Raqqa.
SOHR said the airstrikes have also affected refineries and oil fields, mills and a factory.
Another 72 militants from the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front were also killed in Aleppo and Idleb.
The London-based NGO said it believes the real death toll of IS combatants might well be higher, since the terrorist group has imposed absolute secrecy on the casualties it sustains, and due to the difficulty in accessing areas subjected to attacks and bombings.
IS proclaimed in late June a caliphate in territories under its control in Iraq and Syria.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since 2011, according to the United Nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment