Two Syrian activist groups have claimed coalition aircraft have bombed a prison run by the so-called “Islamic State” in Syria, killing 42 civilians. The US-led coalition has said it is looking into the matter.
The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights claimed on Tuesday that a US coalition airstrike hit a prison run by the so-called “Islamic State,” killing at least 57 people.
“The strikes hit an IS jail in Mayadeen at dawn on Monday, killing 44 prisoners and 15 jihadists,” chief of the Britain-based Observatory Rami Abdel Rahman told news agency AFP.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition told Reuters that it would quickly look into the matter.
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The jail reportedly contained civilian prisoners as well as jailed members of the terrorist group.
The activist-run Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet said at least 60 civilians were killed in the attack. It said the building belonged to a commander with links to al Qaeda before it was seized by IS in 2014.
Both groups blamed aircraft from the US-led coalition but it was not clear how they identified the aircraft responsible.
Syrian state-run TV station al-Ikhbariya cited its correspondent in the area as saying coalition warplanes had destroyed a building in al-Mayadeen used as a prison by IS.
In a news bulletin flashed on screen, it said the building had been used as a prison for a “large number of civilians”.
US to investigate
Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition told Reuters: “With every single allegation we will take it and look into it.
“If we are responsible for any civilian casualties we come forth and admit it,” he said. He said Observatory reporting had previously been exaggerated.
Mayadeen is in the Euphrates Valley about 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of Deir Ezzor, the capital of a province bearing the same name.
US intelligence officers had previously told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, that IS had moved most of its leaders to al-Mayadeen as Raqqa came under increasing attack.
Among the operations believed to have moved to al-Mayadeen were its online propaganda operation and its limited command and control of attacks in Europe and elsewhere, they said.
Last week the coalition said that it had killed IS’s top cleric Turki Binali in a May 31 strike in Mayadeen and earlier this month Russia said it had killed about 180 IS jihadists, including two field commanders, in June 6 and 8 air strikes on Deir Ezzor.
aw/msh (AFP, AP, dpa)
