BEIRUT: US-led coalition strikes near the Daesh group’s Syrian stronghold Raqqa in March killed at least 84 civilians, including dozens of children, Human Rights Watch alleged Monday.
The group said the strikes hit two sites: a school housing displaced families in the town of Mansourah, and a market and bakery in the town of Tabqa.
It said witnesses acknowledged Daesh fighters had been present at both sites, but that large number of civilians were also there.
“These attacks killed dozens of civilians, including children, who had sought shelter in a school or were lining up to buy bread at a bakery,” HRW deputy emergencies director Ole Solvang said.
“If coalition forces did not know that there were civilians at these sites, they need to take a long, hard look at the intelligence they are using to verify its targets because it clearly was not good enough.”
HRW said the first of the two strikes was on March 20, and killed at least 40 people including 16 children at the Badia school in Mansourah. The second was on March 22 and killed at least 44 people including 14 children at the Tabqa market and bakery.
The US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes in support of anti-Daesh operations in Syria since September 2014, after expanding its existing campaign in neighboring Iraq.
Since last November, it has been supporting the Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as it battles to capture Raqqa province, including its capital Raqqa city.
The SDF broke into Raqqa city in June and is on the verge of capturing the former jihadist bastion.
But activists have criticized what they say are disproportionately high civilian death tolls in the campaign.
The coalition says it take all possible precautions to avoid civilian casualties and investigates credible reports of civilian deaths in its strikes.
In August, it acknowledged the deaths of 624 civilians in its strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014.
But rights groups say the real figure is much higher, and HRW criticized the coalition’s methodology for assessing civilian casualties.
It said the coalition reported having assessed the Mansourah and Tabqa strikes, but it appeared they carried out no site visits nor witness interviews even though both places have been under SDF control for weeks.
“If the coalition had visited the sites and talked to witnesses they would have found plenty of evidence that civilians were killed in these attacks,” Solvang said.
“The coalition should follow our lead, conduct full investigations, and find ways to make its civilian casualty assessments more accurate.”
More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
US-led strikes killed 84 civilians near Syria’s Raqqa: HRW
US-led strikes killed 84 civilians near Syria’s Raqqa: HRW
Turkiye to forge on with tight economic policy, some fine-tuning, VP Yilmaz says
- The central bank forecasts inflation between 13-19 percent by end-2026
ISTANBUL: Turkiye is committed to carrying on its tight economic policies in order to cool inflation, and though it may fine-tune the program it will not change course, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said in comments embargoed to Friday.
“There is no plan to pause our program,” Yilmaz said at a briefing with reporters in Istanbul on Thursday. “All programs are dynamic, and adjustments can always be made.”
Yilmaz, who plays a key role overseeing economic policy at the presidency, said any such adjustments would aim to support production, investment and exports while moderating consumption.
Turkiye has pursued tight monetary and fiscal policies for more than two years in order to reduce price pressure, leading to high financing and borrowing costs that have weighed on businesses and households. Inflation has eased slowly but steadily over the last year but remains elevated at 31 percent annually.
Last month, Is Bank CEO Hakan Aran warned that focusing solely on one target — inflation — could create side effects, suggesting a “pause and restart” might be healthy once the program achieves certain targets.
Yılmaz said the government expects improvements in inflation in the first quarter, which should reflect to market expectations for year-end inflation around 23 percent. The government projects inflation to dip as far as 16 percent by year end, within a 13-19 percent range, and falling to 9 percent in 2027. The central bank forecasts inflation between 13-19 percent by end-2026.
Yilmaz noted inflation fell by nearly 45 points despite pressure from elevated food prices, hit by agricultural frost and drought.
The agricultural sector is expected to support growth and help ease price rises this year, which could help achieve official inflation targets, he said.
Yilmaz said the government wants to avoid a rapid drop in inflation that could hurt economic growth, jobs and social stability.
Turkiye’s economic program was established in 2023 after years of unorthodox easy money that aimed to stoke growth but that sent inflation soaring and the lira plunging. The program aims to dislodge high inflation expectations while boosting production and exports, in order to address long-standing current account deficits.
The central bank, having raised interest rates as high as 50 percent in 2024, eased policy through most of last year, bringing the key rate down to 38 percent.
Asked whether lower rates could trigger an exit from the lira currency, Yilmaz said: “What matters is real interest rates. Lowering rates as inflation falls does not affect real rates, so we do not expect such an impact.”
He added that the government will strengthen mechanisms that selectively support companies while improving overall financial conditions.
