US-led coalition airstrikes endangering Syrian civilian population: United Nations

A French Rafale fighter jet is being prepared on the deck of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle at the start of the Operation Arromanches 3 on September 30, 2016 in the Mediterranean Sea. (Photo by AFP)

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has voiced worries over the impact of US-led airstrikes on Syria’s civilian population.  

“The commission is gravely concerned about the impact of international coalition airstrikes on civilians,” said the council in a report on Wednesday.

The report adds that the US-led coalition also failed to take correct precautions to protect civilians during an airstrike in Aleppo earlier this year.

“Forces of the United States of America failed to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects when attacking a mosque, in violation of international humanitarian law,” it said.

On March 17, at least 42 people lost their lives in a US airstrike that is said to have targeted a mosque full of people in a village west of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Referring to the situation in Raqqah, the UN report said, “Investigations are ongoing into allegations that international coalition airstrikes, carried out as part of the ongoing offensive to repel Daesh from Raqqah, have resulted – and continue to result – in increasingly alarming numbers of civilian casualties.”

“The commission is gravely concerned that this offensive has led to the internal displacement of some 190,000 persons, with the fate of some 20,000 others precarious as they remain trapped Raqqah city, many of them civilians that Daesh reportedly forced to concentrate in areas under its control,” it added.

Last month, Amnesty International released a report confirming that US operations in Raqqah were greatly endangering civilians.

“Things will only get more dangerous as the battle reaches its final stages in the city center. More can and must be done to preserve the lives of civilians trapped in the conflict and to facilitate their safe passage away from the battleground,” said Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Response Adviser Donatella Rovera.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh terrorists inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate. It has also been involved in a similar campaign in neighboring Iraq.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.