Airstrikes targeting the "Islamic State" group in Syria have left 472 civilians dead over the past month, a monitor says. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the figure is more than double the previous month.
Aerial bombardments in Syria carried out by the international coalition against "Islamic State" (IS) saw the highest civilian death toll for a single month since they began in September 2014, a group monitoring the Syrian conflict said on Friday.
The airstrikes left 472 civilians dead between May 23 and June 23, more than double the number killed in the previous 30-day toll (225 civilians), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The death toll included 137 children.
Key IS areas struck
The Observatory said the IS-held provinces of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa were the worst affected, with 222 civilians - including 84 children - killed in Deir Ezzor, along with 250 civilians - including 53 children - in Raqqa.
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US-backed militias push into IS-held Raqqa
The latest toll brought to 1,953 the number of civilian deaths from the US-led airstrikes in Syria, it said. The Observatory bases its reports on information gathered by a network of activists on the ground.
In recent months, the US-led coalition has stepped up bombing of Syrian areas under IS's control. The intense bombardment backs an ongoing campaign by US-allied Syrian fighters seeking to capture Raqqa from the jihadists.
Last month, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said President Donald Trump had instructed the Pentagon to "annihilate" IS in Syria in a bid to prevent foreign fighters from returning home.
The coalition insists it takes every measure to avoid hitting civilians, but in its most recent report, it admitted it had "unintentionally killed" 484 civilians recently in both Iraq and Syria. But observers say the number is much higher.
In May, the United Nations accused the US-led alliance of not taking adequate care to prevent civilian deaths in Syria.
The coalition has also come in for severe criticism for hitting civilians during an aerial bombing in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March. More than 100 civilians were killed in a single strike, leading to a temporary halt of the offensive.
The producers of a controversial play in Poland are being investigated by state prosecutors over allegations they are inciting the audience to murder.
The Curse (Klątwa) is being staged at Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw and is directed by Oliver Frljić, a Croatian director. It examines the relationship between the Polish Catholic church and the state, and condemns the authorities for failing to respond to allegations of child abuse by members of the clergy.
In the play’s most notorious scene, an actor simulates oral sex on a plastic statue of the late Polish pope John Paul II, as a sign reads: “Defender of paedophiles”.
In another scene, an actor considers the legality of a fictional speech in which she would – hypothetically – raise money to pay for the assassination of Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS).
The production has been sold out since it opened in February, but soon after its premiere, prosecutors – who have been overseen by the government since PiS won elections in 2015 – announced the production was under investigation.
Tymoteusz Zych, from the conservative advocacy group Ordo Iuris, which drew up proposals for a blanket ban on abortion that sparked street protests last year, has described the play as hate speech. He said the production “includes a number of scenes which have basic features of hate speech targeted against Christians and stigmatisation of this group”.
Jacek Kurski, a PiS official who was appointed director of state television after PiS assumed office, tweeted after the play opened: “There is and there will be no space on TV for degrading the sanctity of Poles or calling for political murder”.
Many of the scenes also deal provocatively with issues concerning religion and national identity in contemporary Poland, including abortion and Muslim migration.
One audience member was injured with a liquid corrosive during a protest against the production in May. Photograph: Jakub Szafrański
The producers of The Curse have accused Poland’s state-controlled media of deliberately whipping up public anger that has led to heated protests and death threats against actors and theatre staff.
They claim the state broadcaster TVP made a recording of the production without its permission, and published excerpts removed from their wider context in a deliberate attempt to stoke public anger – in particular by misrepresenting the play as calling for Kaczyński’s assassination. The theatre is initiating legal action against TVP.
Last month members of religious and nationalist groups clashed with police and free speech advocates outside the theatre, letting off flares and attempting to block theatregoers from entering. One audience member was taken to hospital after apparently being attacked with a liquid corrosive.
Paweł Łysak, Teatr Powszechny’s director, insisted that the play’s ire is not focused on Christians or Christianity. “This is about how politicians and the church use ideology. This is not about God, this is not about beliefs, this is not about Jesus, not about the Virgin Mary. This is about institutions and oppression by these institutions.”
The Curse is a loose adaptation of a 19thcentury play of the same name by the Polish polymath Stanisław Wyspiański. Written in 1899, it is set in a village in southern Poland that blames a severe drought on the sexual relationship between their village priest and a local girl. In a fit of hysteria, the mob turns not on the priest but on the girl, stoning her to death.
Łysak said the subject matter remained pertinent: “It has been a hundred years since Wyspiański wrote the play, and we have the same problems.”
TVP has since cancelled a production in which Julia Wyszyńska, who performs in the scene featuring the statue of John Paul II, was due to play a leading role.
The government’s response to The Curse has exacerbated concerns about its commitment to freedom of artistic expression. In 2015 the culture minister, Piotr Gliński, attempted to ban a production in the western city of Wrocław on the grounds that public money should not be used to subsidise “pornography”. Gliński also withdrew state funding from the Malta theatre festival in the western city of Poznań, which this year is being curated by Frljić.
Frljić, however, has said the state-led backlash has simply proved The Curse’s point. “It is not just what’s going on on stage, it’s what happens in a broader social context,” he said. “It would be great if the protesters could understand that they too are part of this performance.”
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