Al Jazeera News :
Syrian and Russian air strikes have killed at least 58 people, including five women and eight children, in Syria’s eastern Deir Az Zor province, according to a UK-based monitoring group.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said Saturday’s raids hit the ISIL-held town of al-Qurayyah, in the suburbs of Deir Az Zor.
It was not immediately clear whether most of the dead were civilians or fighters of ISIL, the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, Abdel Rahman said. “ISIL fighters have now set up a security perimeter around the residential area, where the town’s mosque is located,” Abdel Rahman said, referring to the group also known as ISIS.
Russian fighter jets have been carrying out air raids over Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015.
Elsewere in Syria, activists say, warplanes have dropped incendiary bombs over populated areas in Aleppo city for the first time.
It was unclear whether the cluster bombs dropped in the northern city’s Dahrat Awad district were from Russian or Syrian government planes.
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify activists’ videos purporting to show Syrian children wounded by incendiary bombs.
A Human Rights Watch report released in February found use of cluster bombs by Russian and Syrian military forces in attacks across Syria. On yet another Syrian front line, Kurdish and Arab fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) overran a key road junction in the south of Manbij city, an ISIL stronghold on the eastern plains of Aleppo, after capturing nearby grain silos on Saturday, the SOHR said.
“The grain silos overlook more than half of Manbij. SDF fighters can climb to the top and monitor the city,” said Abdel Rahman.
The Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigades, one of the Arab components of the Kurdish-dominated alliance, confirmed that SDF forces had seized the silos and pushed into Manbij.
The SOHR said ISIL and the SDF were locked in intense street fighting as ISIL tried to defend their positions.
Hundreds of Kurds fleeing villages near Manbij controlled by ISIL came under fire, amid mass abductions by the group, according to opposition activists and a Kurdish official.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist-run monitoring group, said ISIL also opened fire at people trying to flee from Manbij, killing 10 of them, including children.
The Syria Democratic Council, the political wing of SDF, called on the international community and aid groups to supply those fleeing with whatever they need, saying many of them are in open areas.
The SDC called on the world to help the SDF “prevent the occurrence of a catastrophe or a massacre,” saying there were “indications” one might happen.
Syrian and Russian air strikes have killed at least 58 people, including five women and eight children, in Syria’s eastern Deir Az Zor province, according to a UK-based monitoring group.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said Saturday’s raids hit the ISIL-held town of al-Qurayyah, in the suburbs of Deir Az Zor.
It was not immediately clear whether most of the dead were civilians or fighters of ISIL, the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, Abdel Rahman said. “ISIL fighters have now set up a security perimeter around the residential area, where the town’s mosque is located,” Abdel Rahman said, referring to the group also known as ISIS.
Russian fighter jets have been carrying out air raids over Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015.
Elsewere in Syria, activists say, warplanes have dropped incendiary bombs over populated areas in Aleppo city for the first time.
It was unclear whether the cluster bombs dropped in the northern city’s Dahrat Awad district were from Russian or Syrian government planes.
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify activists’ videos purporting to show Syrian children wounded by incendiary bombs.
A Human Rights Watch report released in February found use of cluster bombs by Russian and Syrian military forces in attacks across Syria. On yet another Syrian front line, Kurdish and Arab fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) overran a key road junction in the south of Manbij city, an ISIL stronghold on the eastern plains of Aleppo, after capturing nearby grain silos on Saturday, the SOHR said.
“The grain silos overlook more than half of Manbij. SDF fighters can climb to the top and monitor the city,” said Abdel Rahman.
The Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigades, one of the Arab components of the Kurdish-dominated alliance, confirmed that SDF forces had seized the silos and pushed into Manbij.
The SOHR said ISIL and the SDF were locked in intense street fighting as ISIL tried to defend their positions.
Hundreds of Kurds fleeing villages near Manbij controlled by ISIL came under fire, amid mass abductions by the group, according to opposition activists and a Kurdish official.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist-run monitoring group, said ISIL also opened fire at people trying to flee from Manbij, killing 10 of them, including children.
The Syria Democratic Council, the political wing of SDF, called on the international community and aid groups to supply those fleeing with whatever they need, saying many of them are in open areas.
The SDC called on the world to help the SDF “prevent the occurrence of a catastrophe or a massacre,” saying there were “indications” one might happen.
