Spotlight: U.S.-led coalition targeting civilians in Syria unacceptable: analysts

Syrian observers have condemned the frequent targeting of civilians by the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition airstrikes, whose declared goal is striking the Islamic State (IS) group.

The U.S.-led anti-terror coalition started pounding the IS positions in northern Syria in September of 2014.

While the U.S. boasts killing thousands of the IS militants, civilian victims also fell in the process.

In a recent report, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, said 366 civilians, including 92 children and 64 women, were killed in northern Syria since September of 2014 till February of 2016.

The death toll has surely risen ever since.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on ground, said Sunday that 67 civilians, including 23 children and 14 women, were killed since May 31, 2016 till this July in the town of Manbej in the northern province of Aleppo.

The U.S. Central Command acknowledged last April the falling of civilians during the airstrikes, providing a death toll far less than that of the Observatory.

At least 20 civilians died in the U.S. airstrikes between September and February, including eight in a single attack on a mortar position used by militants, it said.

Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesperson for central command, said the casualties were "deeply regretted" but maintained that the campaign was the "the most precise air campaign in the history of warfare."

In Syria, experts questioned the entire intention of the United States and its coalition, saying their strikes are "politicized."

Maher Ihsan, a journalist and political expert, told Xinhua that the intension of the U.S. coalition is under a lot of suspicion.

"It's not strange that the U.S.-led coalition targets civilians in Syria, because the intention of such a coalition to truly target the positions of the IS is questionable," he said, adding that "I think the U.S. strikes are the reflection of the U.S. interests and plans only."

Ihsan gave the example of the IS invasion of the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria last year.

"Everyone saw how the convoys of the IS moved through the Syrian desert toward Palmyra last year, and how the U.S. coalition didn't strike them. Ironically, the IS entered Palmyra under the sight of the U.S. coalition," he said.

For her part, Sana Ali, a Syrian political writer and journalist, shared the same views with Ihsan.

Citing Syrian soldiers she had interviewed before, Ihsan said Syrian soldiers stressed that they have seen how the U.S.-led coalition airdropped munition boxes on areas controlled by the IS in the northern city of al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terror group.

The U.S. said it was dropping weapon aid to "moderate" rebels it's backing.

"I think the U.S. doesn't truly distinguish between the IS and other rebel groups, and if it couldn't distinguish between them, it will not distinguish between civilians and combatants," she said.

"While targeting civilians is condemned, it will not look strange when understanding the double standards and the hidden agendas of the United States, which doesn't care about the Syrians in general, let alone having a concern about the lives of the civilians," she added. Endit