US-led airstrikes killed 129 Syrians in February

US-led airstrikes killed 129 people in the Syrian region of Deir Ez-Zor last month, of which at least 83 were women and children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The final toll was calculated following another massacre on Wednesday in province of Al-Shafah, which killed 22 people including seven women and nine children. The town had already been struck earlier in the week, as well as last Friday, when a school housing displaced families was hit, killing some 25 people and wounding dozens.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out some 23 strikes against 35 targets in the week between 23 February and 1 March against Daesh militants, claiming to have destroyed various weapons caches and supply routes. The majority of strikes have taken place in the south of the province on the western town of Al-Bukamal and the Al-Shafah region on the eastern bank of the Euphrates.

There has also been significant material damage in the towns experiencing repeated bombardment. Some four houses were demolished in last week’s school bombing, with buildings in Al-Bahrah village also destroyed.

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When asked about last week’s massacre, coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said: “We take all allegations seriously and as we always do, we will put it into our civilian casualty assessment and we will publish the results of those on a monthly basis.”

The SDF, made primarily of Kurdish forces, has been battling Daesh forces in Deir Ez-Zor since late 2014 when the group had held most of the province, except for one large pocket where Syrian regime troops and 93,000 civilians had been fighting for three years.

Despite being driven out of large parts of the province, Daesh militants still control pockets of the area with many of its fighters being deployed on the eastern side.

Continued fighting in the region has sent thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives, some forced into the desert as they try to escape the violence. International NGO Save the Children estimates that some 350,000 people have fled the oil-rich province, half of whom are children.

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