Syrian activists: US-led coalition strikes kill 28 civilians

The United States military has found enough credible information to begin a formal investigation into allegations that U.S.-led coalition air strikes killed civilians on July 19 in Syria, a spokesman for the coalition fighting Islamic State, Colonel Chris Garver, said on Wednesday.

There are 24 civilians who were executed by the ISIS in the last 24 hours after taking Buyir from the Syrian Democratic Forces according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He says it amounts to more than four terabytes of digital information and sheds new light on how the Islamic State has used Manbij as a “strategic hub” for welcoming, training, indoctrinating and dispatching foreign fighters.

On Friday, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said a U.S.-led airstrike near Manbej killed 35 civilians, the third civilian casualty to have been caused since May, when the SDF backed the U.S.-led coalition started an offensive against Manbej.

“It’s ISIS [that is to be blamed], since I have seen people on the ground calling in airstrikes, both Kurds, and people from overseas, and they have called off airstrikes if civilians were in the area”, Gifford said. “It benefits the whole global coalition that is working to counter ISIL’s operations around the world”, he said.

Carried out by the U.S. Air Force, the strike allegedly mistook civilians for Islamic State fighters.

From July 28, 2015 to April 29, 2016, U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria have resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

Garver said coalition forces battling ISIS have gathered over 10,000 different items holding valuable information, such as thumb drives, laptops, textbooks and notebooks from the battlefield.

The charity Save the Children says a maternity hospital it supports in an opposition-held area in northern Syria has been bombed, with casualties reported.

A single attack on a village last week killed at least 74 named civilians, mostly women and children, and potentially more than 50 others, according to multiple observers.

The US military has launched a formal investigation into the bombing, but has not said how many deaths it is investigating, reports the Guardian.