US airstrikes kill 15 Syrian civilians in Aleppo: Report

At least 15 civilians, including three children, have been killed in northern Syria in US airstrikes purportedly targeting Daesh positions in the Arab country, a report says.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Wednesday that the attacks had occurred in the city of Manbij in Aleppo Province during the past 24 hours.

The airstrikes came a day after the White house said the US government was following up on press reports about alleged Russian airstrikes in Syria with civilian casualties.

The observatory and the Reuters news agency said on Tuesday that at least 23 people had been killed in Russian airstrikes in the militant-held city of Idlib, including one near a hospital.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov denied the reports.

“We urge people to remain critical of any horror stories spread by the ‘British tandem’ of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Reuters news agency,” he said.

Kurdish-Arab push on Manjib

Elsewhere in northern Syria, thousands of troops from a Kurdish-Arab alliance are launching an attack to capture from Daesh a crucial swathe of the region known as the Manbij pocket following weeks of quiet preparations, US officials told Reuters.

The Pentagon has reportedly deployed more than 200 special forces troops alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, and Turkmen fighters.

The Observatory said that the forces captured16 villages from Daesh and advanced to within nine miles on Manbij.

Turkey shells Syria

Meanwhile, Turkish military forces shelled northern Syria, claiming to have targeted positions of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the war-torn Arab country.

The Turkish General Staff said in a statement on Wednesday that at least 14 members of the terrorist group were killed during the shelling on the city of Aleppo.

The state-run Anadolu Agency, citing military officials, said Wednesday the strikes destroyed a tank, two mortar positions, a building used as headquarters and three vehicles belonging to the terrorists.

The report, which could not be independently verified, said the air raids came after Turkey's military had determined that Daesh militants were preparing to attack the Turkish territory from the region.

Cross-border fire from Syria has claimed 21 lives and wounded dozens of others in the border town of Kilis, south central Turkey, this year.

Turkey itself stands accused of supporting Takfiri militants in Syria.

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and other Takfiri terrorists hold most of the northwestern province of Idlib and parts of neighboring Aleppo province.

On Sunday, Associated Press said Nusra Front has used a March ceasefire to recruit thousands of militants, including teenagers, who had used the Turkish border to slip into Syria.

It is “illustrating how the ceasefire put in place by Russia and the United States to weaken the militants has in many ways backfired,” the news agency said.

Since March, Nusra Front has recruited 3,000 new militants, including teenagers, in comparison to an average of 200 to 300 a month before, AP quoted SOHR as saying.

Other sources said hundreds living in camps for displaced people in the northern parts near Turkey have joined the al-Qaeda branch.

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