At least 21 worshipers were killed on Saturday when U.S.-led coalition airstrikes struck a mosque at the Syrian-Iraqi border, local activists said.
The U.S. strikes hit the ISIS-held village of al-Jazza’ In the southern countryside of Hasaka city, two days since similar strikes killed 15 family members near the area, according to activitsts.
The death toll of Coalition aerial campaign in support for its allied Kurdish force has reached a total of 1000 in the last four months amid deliberate blackout for daily death.
This week and in a provocative statement, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman told Reuters that the U.S. military will remain in northern Syria long after the jihadists are defeated, predicting enduring ties with the Kurdish-dominated region.
The SDF, an alliance of militias dominated by the Kurdish YPG, believes the United States has a "strategic interest" in staying on, SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters.
"They have a strategy policy for decades to come. There will be military, economic and political agreements in the long term between the leadership of the northern areas (of Syria) ... and the U.S. administration," Silo said.
The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State has deployed forces at several locations in northern Syria, including an airbase near the town of Kobani. It has supported the SDF with air strikes, artillery, and special forces on the ground.
