A US Air Force plane takes off as a Turkish Air Force fighter jet taxis at the Incirlik airbase, southern Turkey, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2013. (Photo: AP/Vadim Ghirda)
While the US has presented the area north of the ISIS capital of Raqqa as virtually all “liberated” by Kurdish forces, that doesn’t mean US warplanes aren’t still launching airstrikes against the villages in the region, often with horrific results.
Overnight, US warplanes attacked the village of al-Salihiya, just north of Raqqa, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding several others. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least four of the slain were children.
The Pentagon, as usual, says they cannot confirm or deny the incident, though the US and its coalition partners are the only ones with warplanes active in the area north of Raqqa, strikes which are mostly meant to support the Kurdish YPG in its advance on Raqqa itself.
The Pentagon’s refusal to comment when such incidents happen is part of a concerted effort to keep the official number of civilians slain far lower than the real figure. According to media reporting and NGO assessments, US warplanes have killed thousands of civilians across Iraq and Syria, though the official death toll is only a tiny fraction of this.
This article originally appeared on Antiwar.com .
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