Dozens reported dead in US-led strikes as battle nears Raqqa heart

At least 250 US-led coalition strikes have hit Raqqa city and the surrounding area in the last week, a coalition spokesman told AFP, as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces press an offensive in the city.

On Monday, US-led airstrikes killed at least 42 civilians in several neighborhoods in Raqqa under Daesh control, according to the Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Nineteen children and 12 women were among the dead.

That takes to 167 the number of civilians killed in coalition strikes since August 14, after the observatory said at least 27 were killed on Sunday.

The SDF has so far took just under 60 percent of Raqqa, monitors say, leaving terrorists from the Daesh group in control of about 10 square kilometers (four square miles) in the heart of the city.

But as clashes approach central Raqqa, monitors and activists have reported scores killed in intensifying coalition bombardment of the city.

“The tolls are high because the airstrikes are hitting neighborhoods in the city center that are densely packed with civilians,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

There are buildings full of civilians who are trying to get away from the front lines.”

The coalition says avoiding civilian casualties is its “highest priority.”

Coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon told AFP that the latest allegations of civilian deaths would be taken seriously and investigated.

He said the coalition had stepped up its strikes in Raqqa since a US-backed offensive successfully ousted Daesh from Mosul in neighboring Iraq, freeing up aircraft.

The coalition, which operates in both countries, earlier this month acknowledged the deaths of 624 civilians in its strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014, but rights groups say the number is much higher.

The SDF’s Arab and Kurdish armed groups broke into Raqqa in early June after spending months chipping away at Daesh-held territory in the surrounding province.

Asked about the escalating civilian tolls in recent days, SDF spokesman Talal Sello told AFP his forces were striving to avoid casualties.

“One of the major reasons for the slow progress in the Raqqa fight is the preserving of civilian lives and avoiding massive losses among them,” Sello said.

He blamed Daesh for using civilians as “human shields.”

“We have opened up safe routes for civilians to cross securely towards areas controlled by our forces, who are rescuing civilians almost daily and transferring them to safe places.”

Tens of thousands of people have fled Raqqa city, with the United Nations estimating that up to 25,000 civilians remain trapped inside with dwindling food and fuel supplies.

The UN’s humanitarian pointman for Syria, Jan Egeland, has said Daesh-held territory in Raqqa city is now “the worst place” in the war-torn country.

Civilians, including women and children, must dodge sniper fire, Daesh-laid mines, and coalition bombardment to make it out alive.