UNITED STATES forces were accused of using the banned white phosphorus during coalition air strikes in the town of Hajin, Syria, on Saturday.

Multiple districts of Deir ez-Zor province were targeted in the weekend bombing raids, with a number of civilians reported killed and many more injured after a local bakery was destroyed in al-Soussa.

Local sources reported the use of white phosphorus, which is banned in areas populated by civilians under international law.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said the US-led mission was carried out “under the pretext of fighting Daesh,” which has pockets of resistance remaining in northern Syria.

The United Nations reported that an estimated 10,000 people remain trapped in the Hajin region, fearing civilian deaths as fighting intensifies.

The US-led coalition does not have backing from either Damascus or the UN for their operations in Syria and has not commented on the allegations.

The Russian military reported that US air strikes on Deir ez-Zor last month also used white phosphorus causing major fires which killed large numbers of civilians.

Last year the US refused to respond to similar allegations of the use of the banned substance during operations to retake Raqqa from Isis.

Colonel Ryan Dillon explained he could not comment of the use of specific munitions but confirmed: “In accordance with the law of armed conflict, white phosphorus rounds are used for screening, obscuring and marking in a way that fully considers the possible incidental effects on civilians and civilian structures.”

White phosphorus was allegedly used by US forces in the Iraqi town of Fallujah in 2004 where they were accused of an indiscriminate massacre of men, women and children.

And Amnesty International said a fact-finding team found “indisputable evidence of the widespread use of white phosphorus” in crowded civilian residential areas of Gaza City and elsewhere in the territory during the Israeli bombardment of 2008-9.

It is not considered a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention but an incendiary weapon, making the distinction that white phosphorus does not poison but burns its victims.

Its use as a smokescreen to hide troop movements is allowed, however the Geneva Convention bans the use of white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon in civilian populations.

Damascus has consistently complained of the use of white phosphorus by the US-led coalition in air attacks across the country.