BEIRUL: At least 42 civilians including five children were killed in regime, Russian and US-led coalition airstrikes in northern Syria on Wednesday, a monitor said.
Regime airstrikes killed 15 civilians in Idlib province, while Russian and regime airstrikes killed at least 11 civilians in neighboring Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Seven of those died in regime raids on a bus on the Castello road, a key supply route for the rebels out of the divided provincial capital of Aleppo city, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Airstrikes by the US-led coalition killed a further six civilians in Aleppo’s Manbij town and 10 in Raqqa city in the province of the same name, both held by Daesh, he said.
The international coalition fighting IS on Wednesday said it had conducted 18 airstrikes near Manbij, which is located some 20 miles west of the Euphrates river.
Last week, a US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance launched an assault on Daesh north of their de facto Syria capital Raqqa, seizing dozens of villages in the north of the Raqqa province.
At least 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the Syria war started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.
Airstrikes in north Syria kill 42 civilians
Airstrikes in north Syria kill 42 civilians
Syrian government says it controls prison in Raqqa with Daesh-linked detainees
- Prison holds detainees linked to Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity between advancing Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Friday it had taken over Al-Aktan prison in the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, a facility that was formerly under the control of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The prison has been holding detainees linked to the militant group Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity this week between advancing Syrian government forces and the SDF.
It was not immediately clear how many Daesh detainees remain in Al-Aktan prison as the US military has started transferring up to 7,000 prisoners linked to the militant Islamist group from Syrian jails to neighboring Iraq. US officials say the detainees are citizens of many countries, including in Europe.
“Specialized teams were formed from the counter-terrorism department and other relevant authorities to take over the tasks of guarding and securing the prison and controlling the security situation inside it,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Under a sweeping integration deal agreed on Sunday, responsibility for prisons housing Daesh detainees was meant to be transferred to the Syrian government.
The SDF said on Monday it was battling Syrian government forces near Al-Aktan and that the seizure of the prison by the government forces “could have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism.”
The US transfer of Daesh prisoners follows the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria. Concerns over prison security intensified after the escape on Tuesday of roughly 200 low-level Daesh fighters from Syria’s Shaddadi prison. Syrian government forces later recaptured many of them.
