Date: Feb 13, 2019 Source: The Daily Star U.S. hits Daesh-held mosque as Syria heats up NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria/BEIRUT: The U.S. military said Tuesday it struck a mosque that had allegedly been used as a Daesh (ISIS) control center, as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces battled the extremists in their last stronghold in eastern Syria amid reports of more civilian casualties. The U.S.-led coalition said warplanes struck the mosque in the small town of Baghouz Monday in support of the SDF operation. It said the airstrike occurred as Daesh was using the mosque to direct attacks and employ suicide car bombs against the SDF. “This mosque lost its protected status when ISIS deliberately chose to use it as a command and control center,” the coalition’s deputy commander, Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, said. Col. Sean Ryan, a coalition spokesperson, said U.S.-backed forces were facing a fierce fightback. “The progress is slow and methodical as the enemy is fully entrenched and IS fighters continue to conduct counter attacks,” he said. “The coalition continues to strike at [Daesh] targets whenever available.” Hundreds of mostly foreign Daesh militants are believed to remain in Baghouz and nearby areas, where the SDF began its final push Saturday after months of fighting. Daesh has been fighting back with suicide car bombs, sniper fire and booby traps, and has been using civilians as human shields, slowing the U.S.-backed fighters’ advance. Syrian state media reported that about 70 people were killed or wounded in an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on the edge of Baghouz. It said the airstrike hit a settlement where hundreds of people were taking shelter from the fighting. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven children and eight women were killed late Monday in an airstrike near Baghouz. It was not immediately clear if they were referring to the same event. Ryan said “we are aware of open source reports of alleged civilian casualties. We take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously, and understand there is a lot of misinformation as well.” He added that “there are multiple actors conducting strikes within the area, so we are looking into it.” At least 20,000 civilians have fled the last sliver of Daesh-controlled territory in just the past few weeks. The numbers have overwhelmed Kurdish-run camps in northeastern Syria, where humanitarian conditions are already dire amid a cold winter and meager resources. Syrian activists who closely follow the conflict said negotiations are underway between Daesh and the SDF to open a corridor for the extremists to leave the besieged area. The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdel-Rahman and Omar Abu Laila, who runs a group that monitors developments in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, said the plan is to evacuate Daesh militants into an area close to the Iraqi border. The Observatory said the besieged Daesh commanders had about 40 tons of gold and cash worth millions of U.S. dollars that they hope to take with them. The Sound and Picture organization, which reports on atrocities in Daesh-held areas, said an agreement for the evacuation had alreadybeen reached. It said Daesh commanders agreed to reveal the fate of foreign hostages that were or are still held by the group and hand over some senior fighters. The SDF spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on possible negotiations. In northern Syria, Turkish media reports said a bomb-laden vehicle exploded on the Syrian side of the Al-Rai border gate, opposite the Turkish town of Kilis. An emergency worker in the area said three policemen and four civilians were wounded. The town of Al-Rai is in an area under the control of Turkey-backed rebels and was seized from Daesh in Ankara’s “Euphrates Shield” operation in 2016.