US-led strikes targeting the Islamic
State group killed at least 52 civilians in northern Syria, a monitor
said Saturday, but the Pentagon said it could not confirm the report.
Smoke billows following air strikes by regime forces in the rebel-held area of Ain Tarma, east of the capital Damascus, on April 29, 2015. Photo: AFP
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
monitor also reported deadly violence elsewhere in Syria, including a
rebel rocket attack Saturday that killed 15 civilians and wounded dozens
in Aleppo.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman
told AFP that US-led coalition strikes early Friday on the village of
Birmahle in Aleppo province killed 52 civilians.
He said seven children were among the
dead but that the toll could rise as rescuers were battling to save 13
people trapped under rubble.
Kurdish militiamen and Syrian rebel
fighters were clashing with IS jihadists in a town roughly two
kilometres (one mile) away from Birmahle at the time of the strikes.
"Not a single IS fighter" was killed in
the strikes on Birmahle, said Abdel Rahman, adding that the village is
inhabited by civilians only with no IS presence.
US Central Command spokesman Colonel
Patrick Ryder told AFP there was "no information to corroborate
allegations that coalition air strikes resulted in civilian casualties".
"Regardless, we take all allegations seriously and will look into them further," he added.
Rocket fire hits Aleppo
News of the deaths come as Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Iraq, days after lawmakers in
Ottawa voted to expand their country's contribution to the US-led
coalition against IS.
Air strikes by the international
coalition have supported Kurdish militias fighting IS in Aleppo
province, most notably in the flashpoint border town of Kobane, which is
near Birmahle.
Backed by the strikes, Kurdish fighters drove jihadists out of Kobane in January.
A statement released on Friday by the
coalition's joint task force said it had conducted six air strikes near
Kobane on IS tactical units.
Prior to Friday's strikes, the
coalition's raids had killed 66 civilians since it began attacking IS
positions in Syria in September 2014.
According to the Britain-based
Observatory, the air campaign has killed more than 2,000 people in
total, including at least 1,922 IS fighters.
The rocket attack in Aleppo struck a
regime-controlled neighborhood killing 15 civilians, including nine
children and a woman, most of them from the same family, said the
Observatory.
"The attack was carried out by a rebel
group to avenge the death of its leader Badr Khaled Siraj, who is better
known as Khaled Hayyani," said Abdel Rahman.
He said Hayyani was killed Friday night
by pro-regime snipers and described him as a "dangerous man who was
responsible for over 550 deaths, including 130 children, in 2014".
Dozens were seriously wounded, added Abdel Rahman who expected the death toll to rise.
Syrian state television blamed "terrorists" for the rocket attacks, which it said killed 12 people and wounded 45.
'Chlorine' attack
Also on Saturday, at least 40 civilians,
including children, suffered respiratory problems in "chlorine gas
attacks" on two rebel-held villages in northwestern Idlib province, the
Observatory said.
The monitor said regime forces dropped
barrel bombs filled with chlorine -- a toxic agent that can be
considered a chemical weapon -- on Saraqeb and Nairab, causing the
deaths.
A video posted online by activists which
could not be verified by AFP showed paramedics splashing a toddler with
water, while other children, some coughing, breathed through gas masks.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said a baby had died in Nairab.
Activists have accused the Syrian regime of using chlorine on civilian areas in the past.
In January, the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said chlorine gas had been used in
attacks on three Syrian villages in 2014.
In eastern Syria on Saturday, 16
civilians were killed when regime aircraft pounded the city of Deir
Ezzor and a nearby IS-held village, the monitor said.