MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. Hundreds of civilians were killed in an air strike delivered by the US-led coalition on the town of Mansura in the Raqqa province in north Syria, the news agency Anadolu reported on Wednesday.
According to the agency’s data, the air strike targeted a school housing displaced people.
The news agency France-Presse earlier reported about 33 civilians killed in the air strike. The incident occurred on Tuesday. The air strike was delivered in the south of Mansura held by militants of the Islamic State terrorist grouping (outlawed in Russia).
The Air Force of the US-led coalition is providing air support for Arab-Kurdish formations from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) advancing on Raqqa. The operation codenamed Euphrates Anger against the Islamic State’s main stronghold in Syria began in November last year. It involves 30,000 fighters.
Raqqa, which is situated on the Euphrates 160 km south-east of Aleppo, was seized by Islamic State militants in March 2013 and proclaimed as the capital of the Caliphate by IS Chieftain Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi in the summer of 2014. The city is home to 300,000 people. In expert estimates, from 3,000 to 4,000 militants may be staying there.