United Nations fails to condemn US for civilian deaths in Syria

The photo shows a helicopter from the US-led coalition, which is purportedly fighting Takfiri Daesh terrorists, flying near the Syrian border, April 25, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations has failed to denounce Washington for the death of over 100 civilians in the latest US-led coalition airstrikes in eastern Syria, merely urging air forces operating in the Arab country to be more cautious.

"The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Dayr al-Zawr and Raqqah suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein said in a statement on Friday.

Zeid's remarks came a day after the US-led airstrikes in Mayadin town of Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr killed at least 117 civilians, mostly women and children, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Relatives of Takfiri Daesh terrorists were reportedly among the dead.

"There are multiple air forces operating in this part of Syria including the (US-led) coalition, mainly the coalition," Zeid's spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva briefing on Friday, adding, "I can't begin to identify who is responsible."

Zeid said that on May 15 over two dozen farm workers, mostly women, had been killed in airstrikes on a village in Syria’s Raqqah Province and nearly 60 civilians had lost their lives in air raids on residential areas of Dayr al-Zawr.

The US-led coalition has denied having a role in the airstrikes.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein is pictured during a press briefing at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) conference center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 4, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The UN human rights chief referred to the plight of civilians trapped in Daesh-held areas. He said some people had been executed at the site of airstrikes after being accused of providing coordinates for the air raids.

"Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas," he said.

The United States and allies formed the coalition in 2014 with a purported aim of fighting Daesh in neighboring Iraq, but they later expanded it to include territories in eastern and northern Syria. Damascus, which itself is fighting terrorists on multiple fronts, condemned the decision at the time, saying it violated Syria’s territorial integrity.

The US military has admitted that the attacks in Syria have claimed hundreds of civilian lives, although Washington rejects figures provided by monitors on the ground and always tries to cut back on the number of the casualties.

In April, the US military’s Central Command announced that US-led coalition air strikes against Daesh in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed 229 civilians since such operations began in 2014 amid reports estimating that the civilian death toll stood at nearly 1,500 in March alone.