NEW YORK (Dispatches) – Syria has strongly denounced repeated deadly airstrikes carried out by the so-called U.S.-led military coalition in the Arab country, calling on the United Nations and the Security Council to stop Washington and its allies form killing Syrian civilians and increasingly damaging the country's infrastructure.
In two letters to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the head of UN Security Council on Sunday, Syria's Foreign Ministry lambasted the U.S.-led coalition's airstrikes in Syria's northern city of Raqqah, which killed at least 43 people in the Jomeili neighborhood.
The ministry said the "crimes" committed by the so-called military alliance are no way less than those perpetrated by the Daesh terrorist group against the Syrian civilians. It also said, in the pair of letters, that the airstrikes directly target country's infrastructure, "including bridges, oil and gas wells, dams, electricity and water plants, and public and private buildings."
The U.S. and its allies have been bombarding what they call Daesh positions inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization, whatsoever, from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry further said the real goal of the U.S.-led coalition "are totally in contradiction with" its declared claims of eliminating Daesh terrorists and curbing other terror outfits in the Middle Eastern country, adding that fighting Daesh does not require targeting civilians, infrastructure and the Syrian army troops and their positions.
The development comes as Syrian army soldiers have managed to liberate a key town in the northern province of Aleppo from Daesh terrorists as they continue to score more territorial gains in battles against extremists across the war-ravaged Arab country.
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency, SANA, that Syrian troops had regained control of Maskanah town, which lies on the western bank of Lake Assad and is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the provincial capital city of Aleppo.
"Military units continue to advance in the east of Aleppo province and track down groups of Daesh terrorists. Security and stability has been restored to the strategic town of Maskanah and a number of areas,” the source added.
The recapture of Maskanah marks a great victory for Syrian government forces as the town is the last important civilian population center on the eastern border of Aleppo with the terrorist-held neighboring province of Raqqah.
"Whoever controls Maskanah controls the axes running between Aleppo and Raqqah. Daesh presence in the eastern flank of Aleppo Province is now at its end,” an unnamed Syrian military official commented.
Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored terrorist groups since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated last August that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then.