Konflikten i Syrien

“Two pilots who were part of the operation to down the Russian Su-24 in November 2015 are in custody” over links with the failed coup, a Turkish official told journalists.

US-led warplanes reportedly fired six missiles at a school in northeast Aleppo on Tuesday, sources on the ground told Syria Direct, in what may be the coalition’s deadliest attack on civilians in the two-year air campaign in Syria.

The airstrike, at 3:00am Tuesday morning, destroyed a school in a-Tokhar, a 3,500-person town 15km northeast of IS-controlled Manbij city and killed anywhere from 65 to 160 people.

CENTCOM reported Monday that “near Manbij, 11 strikes struck eight separate [IS] tactical units,” referring to Aleppo province’s second-largest city, over the past 48 hours. CENTCOM has not yet commented on the alleged airstrike in a-Tokhar, where the school was used as a shelter for internally displaced Syrians.

“That school housed displaced people from neighboring villages,” Abu Omar al-Manbiji, a local citizen journalist, told Syria Direct on Tuesday from Manbij. “So far we count 124 dead from the attack, and that number could very well increase.”

A US air strike killed more than 85 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.

Some eight families were hit as they tried to flee fighting in their area, in one of the single deadliest strikes on civilians by the alliance since the start of its operations in the war-torn country.

Pictures of the aftermath of the dawn strikes on the Isil-controlled village of Tokhar near Manbij in northern Syria showed the bodies of children as young as three under piles of rubble.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians mistaken for Islamist militants.

It is thought Tuesday’s bombing was among the first by jets taking off from Incirlik air base in Turkey since it reopened after the failed coup.

Christer Sfeir
‏@ChristerSfeir
Här är den patetiska förklaringen från Zinki: "de skyldiga ska straffas, men han är 20 år men ser yngre ut>

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan 1 timför 1 timme sedan
My views on the beheading of a child soldier by Syrian rebels operating under Zinki faction. Frankly and as a Syrian:

This is a little bit more than an isolated incident. It's part of a growing number of unreported such reprehensible acts.

No room for apologism here. As US vetting goes, going from green to red is much easier from going from red to green so Zinki has no chance.

Groups operating with Nusra become influenced by its ideology. I mentioned before that Ahrar al-Sham conducted beheadings. Nobody believed.

Since Feb., Zinki in Aleppo became too close to Nusra, for operational necessities. But there is no such thing as free-riding with Al Qaeda.

In short, this wasn't an incident to condemn. It's much more than that. As a Syrian, such groups worry me just as Nusra + ISIS do. Full stop