Multiple civilians were killed and dozens more injured in a coalition strike targeting the village of al-Sirajieh in southern Al-Hasakah governate, the Syrian Arab News Agency reports, citing civilian sources. Coalition warplanes reportedly fired several missiles into the village, hitting residents' homes.
The alleged airstrike was a follow-up to an attack March 1 which killed three civilians, including a child, and injured at least five more, in an attack on the village of al-Safawi.
Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense marked its concern over the fate of civilians in territories held by US-led coalition forces or their armed opposition allies, stressing that the civilians in Raqqa and the Rukban refugee camp in At-Tanf region in particular were experiencing a "humanitarian catastrophe." The Russian military also reported that jihadist militants were moving freely near the US base in al-Tanf, seemingly contradicting the US's stated aim of fighting terrorism in Syria.
The US-led coalition has been conducting a campaign of airstrikes against what it has said are Daesh (ISIS) targets in Syria since September 2014, but has no mandate to do so from the UN, or from the internationally recognized government in Damascus. Last month, the coalition confirmed that airstrikes in Syria and Iraq had accidentally killed several hundred civilians.
