The Syrian Coalition held the international anti-ISIS coalition responsible for the rising civilian casualties in Raqqa, warning of dire consequences of the continued support for the militias of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Bombardment by the international coalition forces and the SDF militias have killed more than 160 civilians in Raqqa over the past three days, local activists said. The victims included three entire families comprising 50 people and including women and children who were killed in airstrikes on a building inside an amusement park in Raqqa on Tuesday. The airstrikes were followed by heavy artillery shelling by the SDF militia targeting the site of the airstrikes.
Activists said that warplanes of the international coalition launched about 110 airstrikes on Raqqa on Sunday and Monday, killing more than 100 civilians and wounding dozens more as well as causing massive destruction to residential buildings and shops.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Syrian Coalition said that these crimes are added to the litany of war crimes against civilians in violation of international law.
The Syrian Coalition stressed that the fight against terrorism cannot be achieved by targeting civilians or by supporting other forms of terrorism. A political solution cannot be reached unless the international community shows a firms stance towards the source of terrorism, namely the Assad regime which bears the primary responsibility for the spread of terrorism in Syria, the region and beyond.
For more than 72 days, Raqqa has been the battleground for fierce battles between the ISIS extremist group and the SDF militias which are fighting under aerial over from the international coalition forces to drive ISIS out of its stronghold in Syria which it captured in late 2013. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
