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US airstrike wounds family of six in Syria

A UNITED STATES air strike in northern Syria wounded a family of six people, including a 10-year-old child who suffered serious head injuries, it was revealed today.

Farmer Ahmad Qassim and his family were driving back home on Friday morning when an explosion occurred, puncturing their vehicle with shrapnel, the Associated Press found.

The 52-year-old, his wife, two sons and two daughters suffered various wounds in the blast, apparently caused by a missile fired from a US drone.

The drone was targeting a man on a motorcycle that Mr Qassim was trying to overtake, according to Mr Qassim and first responders.

The blast occurred near the north-western village of Mastoumeh in the Idlib province as the family drove back home to the northern town of Afrin.

The US military said it conducted a strike from a remotely piloted MQ-9 aircraft near the city of Idlib on Friday, targeting “a senior al-Qaida leader and planner.”

An initial review of this strike indicates the potential for possible civilian casualties, it added.

US Central Command spokesperson Capt Bill Urban said: “We abhor the loss of innocent life and take all possible measures to prevent them.

“The possibility of a civilian casualty was immediately self-reported to US Central Command.

“We are initiating a full investigation of the allegations and will release the results when appropriate.”

Idlib is the last major rebel stronghold in Syria and home to three million people, many of them internally displaced, like the Qassim family.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the US drone fired three missiles in the attack, killing a former member of the al-Qaida-linked Horas al-Din group.

The Observatory said the man who was killed had left the group nearly a year ago, adding that he was a Syrian citizen from the north-western region of Jabal al-Zawiya in Idlib province.

It was not clear whether he was still a combatant.

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