... fleeing ISIS in Euphrates Valley

On January 18, US-led coalition warplanes killed more than 20 civilians who were trying to flee the ISIS-held town of al-Baghuz al-Fawqani in the middle Euphrates River Valley, according to several Syrian sources.

“The number of victims is expected to raise as many wounded are in critical condition,” a reporter of the Deir Ezzor 24 blog said.

Local activists revealed that the victims, most of them were women and children, had managed to escape from al-Baghuz al-Fawqani and reached a checkpoint of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). However, the US-backed group refused to let them pass and coalition warplanes targeted them on their way back to the town.

The US-led coalition and the SDF have not commented on these reports about the massacre in al-Susah so far. Usually, the coalition addresses such incidents within a few months claiming that there were no civilian casualties or their number was very low.

This was not the first time the US-led coalition committed a massacre in the Euphrates Valley. According to a recent report by the pro-occupation UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), 373 civilians have been killed by coalition forces since last September.