(Credit: Courtesy of U.S. Army, Tech. Sgt. Andy Dunaway/Wikimedia Commons)
On July 21, three people, including a child, were killed as a result of a joint operation of the US-led coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria.
In a statement, the SDF’s Media Center said that the target of the operation was an assassination cell of ISIS based in the town of Khurbat al-Jamus in the eastern countryside of al-Hasakah.
The cell’s members clashed with SDF fighters, killing at least one of them. In response, a warplane of the US-led coalition, reportedly an attack helicopter, targeted the cell’s hideout with two missiles.
“The [US-led] coalition has the inherent right to defend our partner forces. No civilians were killed as a result of SDF operations or the airstrikes,” Col. Wayne Marotto, a spokesman for the coalition, said on Twitter.
According to the SDF, two of the cell’s members were killed and two others were captured. The group also claimed that its fighters found the dead body of a child who was shot near the cell’s hideout.
“Our forces will open an investigation with the detained mercenaries to find out why the child was there and the circumstances that led to his death,” the SDF’s Media Center said.
The child may have been killed during the clashes between ISIS terrorists and SDF fighters or as a result of the US-led coalition airstrikes.
The US-led coalition and the SDF have intensified their operations against ISIS cells recently. On July 16, six terrorists were neutralized in a successful air landing operation in the southeastern Deir Ezzor countryside.
