US-led coalition bombs Syrian mosque being used by IS

Airstrike comes day after four US soldiers killed in suicide bombing, underlining jihadist group’s continued presence despite looming troop pullout

The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group destroyed a command center housed in a Syrian mosque on Thursday, officials said.

The strike is another indication that IS has not been “beaten” in Syria, as Trump claimed last month when he ordered the withdrawal of US forces from the country.

Coalition aircraft “destroyed an ISIS command and control facility in a mosque in Safafiyah,” a coalition statement read, using an alternate acronym for IS.

“ISIS continues to violate Law of Armed Conflict and misuse protected structures like hospitals and mosques, which cause a facility to lose its protected status,” the statement added.

IS holdouts in Syria are mainly in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

A Syrian woman and child walk past the shuttered doors of a restaurant which was the site of a suicide attack targeting US-led coalition forces in the flashpoint northern Syrian city of Manbij which killed four US servicemen the previous day on January 17, 2019. (Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

Four Americans, including two US soldiers, were killed Wednesday in a suicide blast claimed by IS in the northern city of Manbij.

It was the deadliest attack against US forces since they first deployed to Syria four years ago.