Al-Jazeera TV Report: Most Casualties in Coalition Air Strikes in North Syria Were Civilians

According to an Al-Jazeera TV report, aired on September 23, 2014, most of the casualties in a coalition air strike on a town in northwestern Syria were, in fact, civilians, and not members of ISIS.

Following are excerpts:

Reporter: The coalition forces launched a number of missiles on Tuesday at dawn. The U.S. Pentagon declared that the targets were ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra sites in Syria. The missiles targeted Jabhat Al-Nusra headquarters in the town of Kafr Diryan in northwestern Syria. In addition, two residential neighborhoods in the town were completely destroyed.

More than 27 people were killed in these air strikes, most of whom were civilians, according to the fire brigade.

Unidentified rescue worker: There were five strikes while the people were asleep. We pulled out 21 men, three women, and six children. Some died in our arms, while others were taken to hospital, and we were informed that they were martyred.

Reporter: The locals say that this is the first time that they were attacked by missiles since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution. The paradox, they say, is that they were bombed not by the Syrian regime, but by an international coalition, which killed and wounded many of them, under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Witness: This coalition is not against terrorism. It is against the civilians, as you can see. This revolution has been going on for four years now, and not a single missile was shot at us by Bashar Al-Assad and his gang. The coalition fired two missiles, supposedly targeting ISIS, but there are no ISIS members here, not even ISIS children.

Reporter: As the firefighters continue to work at extracting bodies from the rubble, the locals collect what is left of their furniture, so they can leave a town that has never been hit by the missiles of the Syrian regime.

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