In an embarrassing bit of timing, as US officials were railing against the Syrian military for targeting civilians at the UN, US warplanes were attacking a cotton mill in northeastern Syria, an attack which killed at least 10 civilians.

It is unclear why the cotton mill, in the village of Salhiyeh, was targeted in the first place, but it is north of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa, which Kurdish YPG forces are in the process of surrounding. The Kurdish forces are almost exclusively north of the city.

Which is also the direction civilians are fleeing Raqqa. Among the civilians slain in the cotton mill attack were a displaced family of six who were sheltering in the area. Also killed were three employees and another bystander from the village.

This is the latest in a growing number of incidents in which US airstrikes supporting Kurdish offensives in Syria have killed innocent civilians. Despite these being well documented, official Pentagon figures dramatically under-report the actual death toll of US strikes.