US Airstrikes Kill at Least 40, Mostly Civilians, in Eastern Syria

Saturday attacks targeted village along Iraqi border

Continuing weeks of near-daily civilian death tolls from the US air war in Eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that Saturday’s US attacks killed 40 more people, overwhelmingly civilians. The victims were described as mostly women and children.

Saturday’s attacks were against the village of Abu al-Hassan, along the Iraq border. It is adjacent to the ISIS-held towns that the US has been mostly attacking in recent weeks, and which Kurdish ground troops are attempting to invade.

The Syrian Observatory said it was unclear if any of the men killed in the attacks were actually militants, but that 17 children and 12 women were confirmed among the slain. In general, these attacks have targeted residential areas, not militants.

The US, as is increasingly typical of these incidents, has not offered any commentary on the matter at all. Though earlier in the war they would try to explain such killings, or at least deny involvement, in the past weeks they seem simply to be refusing all comment.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.