US airstrikes kill 43 people in Syria’s Raqqah

A US Air Force F-16

At least 43 people have lost their lives in fresh US airstrikes in the northern Syrian province of Raqqah.

Syrian state TV said the air raids hit Raqqah’s Jomeili neighborhood on Saturday, adding children were among the victims.

The US and its allies have been bombarding what they call Daesh positions inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate. 

US air raids left a total of 225 civilians dead in Syria between April 23 and May 23 alone, according to latest figures released by the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

SDF takes control of town near Raqqah city

On Friday, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had captured the town of al-Mansoura, west of Raqqah city.

"It's been around three days that the SDF has been attacking al-Mansoura. Today, from two sides, they entered, and it was liberated," a security source close to the SDF told Reuters.

SOHR said clashes were still underway around pockets of Daesh resistance in the town.

The SDF, which has the so-called Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as its backbone, has vowed to storm Raqqah in early summer as part of a multi-phased offensive.

SDF forces seized Tabqah city west of Raqqah in May. They have advanced to within several kilometers of the center of Raqqah over the past few months. 

YPG providing Daesh with safe passage out of Raqqah

Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in an interview with NTV channel that the YPG had likely provided Daesh terrorists with a safe corridor out of Raqqah.

"The National Intelligence Organization is monitoring this issue closely. There are some signs in this regard …. Some of them have been verified [by Turkish intelligence]," he added.

Kalin further accused Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD) of having taken a similar measure previously in a bid to help Daesh in the Syrian city of Manbij.

The Turkish government considers the YPG and the PYD as the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). It has been pressing the US to drop its military alliance with the Kurdish forces in Syria.