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Intensity of Coalition's Raqqa bombardment greater than for all of Afghanistan, official data shows https://airwars.org/news/raqqa-bombardment/ Written by Samuel Oakford on September 20, 2017 US-led Coalition forces are firing record numbers of bombs, missiles and artillery shells into besieged areas of Raqqa city – part of a bloody campaign to dislodge so-called Islamic State (ISIS) from its self proclaimed capital. The assault is also reportedly killing hundreds of trapped civilians every month – a charge the Coalition strenuously denies. On average one Coalition bomb, missile or artillery round was fired into Raqqa every eight minutes during August, according to official data provided to Airwars. A total of 5,775 bombs, shells and missiles were launched by US-led forces into the city during the month in support of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the ground. By way of comparison, US-led forces fired ten times more munitions into Raqqa during August than were released by US aircraft across all of Afghanistan for the same month (503), according to recent data issued by Air Force Central Command (AFCENT). Full: https://airwars.org/news/raqqa-bombardment/ This report is the seventh in a series of quarterly reports by Siege Watch – a joint initiative of PAX and The Syria Institute that aims to provide the international community with timely and accurate information on conditions in Syria’s besieged communities. This report focuses on developments from May – July 2017. Data collected during the quarter from an extensive network of contacts on the ground found that: An estimated 821,210 people remain trapped in at least 34 besieged communities across the country and nearly 1.7 million additional Syrians live in “Watchlist” areas, under threat of intensified siege and abuse. The Syrian government and its allies remain responsible for the vast majority of all of the sieges in Syria and for most of the threats to “Watchlist” communities. Notably, this reporting period saw the addition of al-Raqqa city to the Siege Watch “Watchlist” for the first time, after US-backed SDF surrounded it in June. This development is indicative of a dangerous evolution of the tactics used by the US-led Global Coalition to defeat Daesh and its partners on the ground. Reports from al-Raqqa suggest that the SDF and Global Coalition are violating international humanitarian law with indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, compounding the suffering of civilians already victimized by years of ISIS rule. https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/seventh-quarterly-report-besieged-areas-syria-may-july-2017 _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
