Misdirected Syria strike by US-led forces kills 18 allied fighters

BEIRUT (AP) — A misdirected airstrike by the US-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling the Islamic State group in northern Syria, the US military said Thursday.

US Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, for a strike intended to target IS militants south of their Tabqa stronghold, near the extremists’ de facto capital, Raqqa.

The strike hit an SDF position instead, killing 18. Central Command said the strike was launched Tuesday.

Several nations have lent their air power to the US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State group. It was not clear which air force was behind the strike.

The SDF acknowledged the strike on Thursday, saying a number of its fighters were killed and wounded.

The SDF-linked Hawar News Agency reported the group was holding funerals for 17 of its fighters in the border town of Tal al-Abyad, though it did not link them to the strike. An activist-run group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, says three days of mourning have been declared for the town. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 25 SDF fighters were killed in the last two days of battle.

The SDF meanwhile announced the launch of a fourth phase of their campaign to capture Raqqa, a Euphrates River city that is home to 300,000 people.

The SDF, with US-led air and ground support, has surrounded Tabqa, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Raqqa. They say they are working to clear Islamic State militants out of Jalab Valley, north of Raqqa.

The SDF says it wants to isolate Raqqa before attacking it. Their closest position is less than eight kilometers (five miles) northeast of the city. But the countryside south of Raqqa is still under IS control. It is unclear how many stages are planned for the campaign.

In a separate development, the international chemical weapons watchdog is testing samples from a suspected nerve gas attack that killed at least 87 people in Syria last week and could produce a report on the matter within three weeks, the British delegation to the commission said Thursday.

The report comes one day after Russia vetoed a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution demanding a speedy probe into the April 4 attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which has been widely blamed on government forces. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the veto left Moscow, a key ally of the Syrian government, with “a lot to prove.”

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has a standing fact-finding mission on Syria to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks, but does not apportion blame. The OPCW’s executive council held a session of its executive council on Thursday to address the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, in the northern rebel-held province of Idlib.

Britain’s delegation to the OPCW tweeted from the executive session that the “Fact Finding Mission is working to gather evidence” and has already started testing samples in a lab.

The US blamed the Syrian government for the attack and fired 59 missiles at an air base in central Syria in response, killing nine people.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he expected the OPCW to conduct an extensive probe into the attack, and insisted the organization visit both Khan Sheikhoun and the air base struck by US missiles.

Russia has said chemicals were released in Khan Sheikhoun when a Syrian airstrike hit an insurgent arms factory that contained chemical weapons. Syria has denied ever using chemical weapons.

The Syrian army said hundreds of Islamic State fighters as well as civilians were killed when a US-led coalition airstrike hit a militant position in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

It said white smoke billowing from the area of the strike turned yellow, “most likely because of the explosion of a large warehouse containing large quantities of toxic substances.” It said that the airstrike showed that militants have chemical weapons in their possession.

Opposition activist Omar Abu Laila, who is from Deir el-Zour and currently lives in Europe, denied that report. Abu Laila is with Deir Ezzor 24, an activist group that has reporters throughout the eastern province.

US Air Force Col. John L. Dorrian, a spokesperson for the coalition mission — dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve — rejected the Syrian claim, writing in a Twitter post that the reports are “not true! Intentional misinformation … again!”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report