Misdirected US air strike kills 18 allies in Syria

An air strike by the US-led coalition mistakenly killed 18 members of a rebel militia that Washington backs in the fight against Isis in Syria.

The Pentagon said that the strike hit the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) south of the city of Tabqa on Tuesday after another US partner in the conflict told it that Isis militants were in the area.

“The target location was actually a forward Syrian Democratic Forces fighting position,” the Pentagon said on Thursday.

The SDF, which is a predominantly Kurdish force, said: “In the zone of military operations around Tabqa, as the result of a mistake, a painful incident occurred, and as a result we lost a number of martyrs and have several wounded.”

It said that the incident was under investigation.

The friendly fire underlines the complexity of Syria’s six-year civil war, with numerous armed groups fighting in the conflict.

The war erupted in 2011 as a struggle between the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and rebels seeking to oust him. It has since evolved into a multi-sided war with forces ranged against the regime and Isis, which controls large areas of eastern Syria.

Kurdish forces and jihadis exploited the chaos to stake out their own enclaves, while foreign powers have poured money and arms into various sides of the conflict. Russia has intervened on behalf of Mr Assad, while the US has supported some rebels and is leading an international campaign to defeat Isis.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Assad rejected claims that his government had been responsible for a chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in which as many as 100 people had been killed.

The Syrian president told Agence France-Presse that the claims had been “fabricated” by the US to create a pretext for air strikes.

This week’s incident highlights the difficulties facing the US-led coalition’s air strike strategy. Last month, coalition attacks killed hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi civilians around the Isis-held towns of Mosul, in northern Iraq, and Raqqa, in northern Syria, sparking local and international outrage.

The US is expected to back the SDF in the battle for Raqqa, the de facto capital of Isis’s so-called caliphate.

The US last month said that it had deployed 400 additional troops to Syria to “provide flexible, all-weather fire support” for the SDF as forces prepared operations to isolate Raqqa.

The city is a crucial prize for rival armed groups fighting in Syria as it is Isis’s last urban stronghold in the country.