DAMASCUS (Xinhua) – A war monitor revealed on Tuesday that 600 people were killed between June and October 2017 during the U.S.-led airstrikes allegedly targeting positions of Daesh terrorist group in Syria’s northern province of Raqqa.
According to a report published on the website of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the U.S.-led bombings in Raqqa, the former de facto capital of the Daesh, killed 600 people from 140 families over the course of the four months.
Their bodies were found when mass graves were uncovered after the Daesh was defeated in Raqqa, according to the report.
The overall number of people killed by U.S.-led airstrikes is much higher, as evidenced by the 28 mass graves housing more than 6,000 bodies, said the Britain-based observatory, adding the majority of the victims were killed during U.S.-led airstrikes allegedly targeting Daesh positions in Raqqa between 2014 and 2018, while the rest were killed by the Daesh following its capture of Raqqa in 2014.
The U.S. military has stationed forces and equipment in eastern and northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of the Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, says the unlawful deployment is meant to plunder the country’s resources.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in Syria for its oil.
After failing to oust the Syrian government with the help of its proxies and direct involvement in the conflict, the U.S. government has now stepped up its economic war on the Arab country.
In recent months, U.S. military convoys laden with stolen Syrian oil have entered the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq after crossing al-Waleed border crossing, as Washington continues to loot energy resources in the war-ravaged country.
However, several villages in Hasakah have in coordination with government forces prevented a number of U.S. military convoys from passing through their communities and have forced them to turn around and head back in the direction they came from.