Raqqa: Over 30 die in school shelter airstrike

RAQQA, Syria (Kurdistan24) – A British-based human rights organization on Wednesday said over 30 people were killed by a US-led coalition airstrike on a displaced person shelter.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed the attack struck a school being used to protect victims of the Islamic State (IS) war in Syria.

The school, bombed on Tuesday, was located in the village of al-Mansoura in the western Raqqa Governorate.

The Syrian civil war monitor said one of its activists in the area saw 33 bodies pulled from the rubble, but it could not verify the death toll.

Moreover, the human rights organization said the US-led coalition airstrikes had killed nearly 116 civilians, including children, since the beginning of March.

Meanwhile, the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Slowly (RBSS) group revealed over 50 families displaced from Aleppo and Raqqa were staying at the school.

The group also blamed the US-led coalition for the airstrike that targeted the school.

“The massacres committed by [the] US-led coalition in Raqqa is unacceptable,” an RBSS statement read.

“The international community must intervene to stop this,” the statement added.

Details of the bombings are expected to be released by the US-led coalition later on Wednesday.

The coalition began an air campaign against the insurgent group in Syria in September 2014 after the emergence of IS in the country.

Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the extremist group in Syria, has been under their control since 2014.

In November 2016, Kurdish-led forces backed by the US began an offensive to liberate Raqqa from IS.

Since then, the insurgent group suffered substantial losses including military setbacks and lost territory.

Editing by Ava Homa