UN slams ‘staggering loss of civilian life’ in Raqqa

The UN inquiry said it had documented that hundreds of civilians had been killed in Raqqa province by air strikes carried out by a US-backed coalition supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces since March 1.

Geneva // United Nations war crimes investigators expressed alarm on Wednesday at the staggering number of civilian deaths as US-backed forces battle to oust ISIL from its Syrian stronghold Raqqa.

At least 300 civilians have been killed, although the actual number is likely higher according to UN officials.

“Civilians are caught up in the city under the oppressive rule of [ISIL] while facing extreme danger ... due to excessive air strikes,” Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, head of the UN Commission of Inquiry, said.

The inquiry said it had documented that hundreds of civilians had been killed in Raqqa province by air strikes carried out by a US-backed coalition supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces since March 1.

“We recorded the civilians deaths caused by the coalition air strike, altogether 300,” commission member Karen Abuzayd said.

She said 200 of those deaths happened on a single day, in the March 21 air strike on the town of Al Masura, about 30 kilometres west of Raqqa.

The investigators, who have never been granted access to Syria, stressed that the death toll provided was only what they had managed to document, and that the true number was likely higher.

Also on Wednesday, Mr Pinheiro told the UN Human Rights Council that the situation for civilians in Raqqa was alarming.

“In areas controlled by extremist factions, we are gravely concerned with the mounting number of civilians who perish during air strikes,” he said.

“We note in particular that the intensification of air strikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes,” he added.

ISIL seized Raqqa in 2014, transforming it into the de facto Syrian capital of its self-declared “caliphate”.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the city and its surroundings since the push to retake the jihadist stronghold began last November, and new waves of displacement are expected as the battle inside the city progresses.

* Agence France-Presse