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Israeli defence minister says Syria's Assad 'victorious'
 by Staff Writers
 Jerusalem (AFP) Oct 3, 2017


US-led strike kills 18 civilians in Syria's Raqa: monitor
Beirut (AFP) Oct 3, 2017 - A US-led coalition air strike killed at least 18 civilians on Tuesday in the Islamic State group's former stronghold of Raqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

"International coalition planes targeted water wells where a group of civilians were gathered in the north of Raqa city, killing at least 18 civilians," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Britain-based group said four children were among the dead.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, broke into Raqa in June and has since wrested 90 percent of the city from IS.

But activists say coalition strikes in support of the operation have killed hundreds of civilians and caused enormous damage.

The coalition's spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said it does "everything within its power to limit harm to non-combatants and civilian infrastructure."

He said "rigorous standards" were applied to coalition targeting and "extraordinary efforts" taken to avoid civilian deaths.

"The coalition conducts a detailed assessment of each and every allegation of possible civilian casualties and we will do so for this allegation as well," he added in an email to AFP.

In late September, the coalition acknowledged the deaths of 735 civilians in its strikes on Syria and Iraq since 2014.

But activists say the toll is much higher.

Raqa has faced water shortages for months because of damage to pipelines caused by suspected coalition strikes.

Even in the early days of the Raqa assault, residents said they feared being caught in air strikes or shelling when they ventured to wells or the Euphrates River that runs south of the city to draw water.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday that President Bashar al-Assad has been "victorious" in Syria's civil war and was now being courted by former enemies.

"Assad has emerged victorious in the battle," Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli news website Walla!.

"Suddenly, everyone wants to get closer to Assad," he said.

"I see that there is now a long line of countries applauding and wooing Assad, including Western (and) moderate Sunni Muslim (states)."

Assad's fortunes have changed dramatically since Russia launched a military intervention to shore up his forces in 2015 and he now appears well on top after a series of key victories.

Israel has previously called on Assad to step down, but officials have sought to avoid getting too heavily involved in the conflict.

Israel has accused Assad-backer Iran of transferring sophisticated weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah and has sporadically struck weapons convoys to the Shiite movement inside the war-ravaged country, as well as Syrian government forces.

Israel and Syria have technically been in a state of war for decades and the Jewish state has become alarmed at the growing Iranian influence in Damascus.

Lieberman said they were hoping for increased American involvement to counterbalance the Iranian threat.

"We hope that the United States will be more active on the Syrian front and in the Middle East in general. We are on the northern front against the Russians, Iranians, Turks and Hezbollah," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted last year Israel had carried out dozens of attacks on weapons convoys destined for Hezbollah.

WAR REPORT
US-led strikes claim another 50 civilian lives: coalition
 Washington (AFP) Sept 29, 2017
 US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria have killed another 50 civilians, the international coalition against the Islamic State group announced on Friday. With the latest deaths, "at least 735 civilians have been unintentionally killed by coalition strikes," it said in a statement, without specifying when the deaths occurred. The United States began carrying out strikes against IS in Iraq i ... read more
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