US airstrikes kill 30 civilians in Syria’s Bukamal

Washington :At least 30 civilians have lost their lives when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh terrorists carried out airstrikes in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr .
Local sources said the airstrikes struck a residential area on the outskirts of the city of al-Bukamal, which lies on the Euphrates River near the border with Iraq.
Many others, including women and children, were injured in the overnight airstrikes, with medical sources indicating that the death toll may rise due to the critical condition of some of the wounded.
The US has been conducting airstrikes inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. It has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.
On December 14, 2017, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates stated that the US-led coalition was indeed targeting civilian facilities and providing Daesh terrorists with cover.
The latest US airstrikes come a day after the Syrian army entered the militant-held part of the southern city of Dara’a and hoisted the national flag near the city’s post office.
The final push into the city happened after militants agreed to put down their arms through a deal facilitated by a Russian military delegation.
Earlier , militant officials and witnesses said a Russian military delegation had entered Dara’a’s terrorist-controlled area and begun negotiations over the region’s handover to the Syrian government.
Two armored vehicles with senior Russian officers entered the al-Shayah area and began talks with commanders from the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) on implementing the terms of the surrender deal.
Since June 19, the Syrian army has been conducting the operation in Dara’a, which borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied side of Syria’s Golan Heights.
Dara’a’s return to the Syrian government control would cut the much-reported collaboration between anti-Damascus militants and Israel which has beefed up its military presence in the Golan Heights in recent days.
Dara’a city was the birthplace of the sedition that began in March 2011 before morphing into a foreign-backed militancy that continues to this day.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)