"Just last week, 30 children and women were gravely injured in a heinous attack by ISIL on besieged neighbourhoods in Deir ez-Zor as they were lining up for water. In addition, more than a hundred civilians, many of them women and children, have fallen victim, in recent weeks, to the escalating counter-ISIL airstrikes, particularly in the north-eastern governorates of Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor," O'Brien said addressing the UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
On May 28, the SANA news agency reported that the coalition's warplanes hit a vehicle carrying civilians five miles to the south of the city of Raqqa. As a result of the airstrike, 20 people died and seven others were injured.
On May 15, an airstrike carried out by the coalition in Syria's eastern town of Al Bukamal reportedly killed at least 31 civilians and injured many others.
The US-led coalition of 68 nations is conducting airstrikes, ground-based and rocket-propelled artillery fire in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State (Daesh) terrorist group. The coalition supports the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which predominately consists of Kurdish fighters but also includes members of the Syrian Arab Coalition.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense told Sputnik that the coalition would assess the recent reports on airstrikes in the Syrian province of Raqqa, which allegedly resulted in civilian killings.
