The agency added that the area of the school is not controlled by Daesh terrorists, however, terrorists control locations nearby.

The news agency also reported about an airstrike on the Tabqa region in the western part of Raqqa, killing at least 40.

The U.S. Defense Department says the U.S.-led coalition fighting the extremist group Islamic State (IS) will investigate reports that an air strike hit a school being used as a shelter in Syria, killing at least 33 people near the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it believed the air strike was carried out by aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

"At this time the coalition has no indication that an airstrike struck civilians near Raqqa as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims," a statement from the U.S. Central Command said.

"However, since we have conducted several strikes near Raqqa, we will provide this information to our civilian casualty team for further investigation."

The Pentagon will aid in investigating reports that at least 33 civilian died near the Syrian town of Raqqa during a US-led coalition airstrike, officials said on Wednesday, following accusations from both local media and monitoring groups based abroad.

"CJTF-OIR [Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve] takes all reports of civilian casualties seriously and assesses all incidents as thoroughly as possible. Coalition forces work diligently to be precise in our airstrikes. Coalition forces comply with the Law of Armed Conflict and take all feasible precautions during the planning and execution of airstrikes to reduce the risk of harm to civilians."

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We've been keeping a close eye on the Israeli media over the last few days, and we're amazed at its transparent eulogies for ISIS and the "moderate" rebels:

An interesting choice of words. Especially the "carved up" part. We suppose that if any country knows anything about carving up Syria, it would be Israel.

We are of course referring to Syria's Golan Heights, the "western two-thirds" of which are currently occupied and administered by Israel. Did we type "occupied"? We mean liberated.

For the last six years, Israel has tried to pretend that it has no horse in the "western/Sunni medieval dictatorship" war against Syria. Like Swiss bankers hoarding Nazi gold during World War II, Israel claimed total neutrality as it waited impatiently to cash in.

• Putin to Israel: "The 'game' in Syria is over" - UN envoy
• Netanyahu to Putin: Israeli airstrikes in Syria will continue
• ISIS calls for backup: Israel bombs Syrian Army positions near Damascus

• Netanyahu to Putin: Israeli airstrikes in Syria will continue
• Russia and Israel: The neocon dilemma
• Russian military advisors were operating in area targeted by Israeli airstrikes in Syria

This kind of "thinking" is highly contagious and can spread throughout an entire society. Mass media just makes it worse, and provides a willing outlet for political operators to inject disinformation through the media stream and into the public mind. Actually, one of the best ways to observe it in action is just to watch and read the mainstream media. They consistently miss the point, ignore the big story, lie, or hallucinate things that aren't there. Government censors aren't necessary when people have their own tiny censors in their brain that prevent them from acknowledging any uncomfortable truths:

When the habits of subconscious selection and substitution of thought-data spread to the macrosocial level, a society tends to develop contempt for factual criticism and to humiliate anyone sounding an alarm. Contempt is also shown for other nations which have maintained normal thought-patterns and for their opinions. Egotistic thought-terrorization is accomplished by the society itself and its processes of conversive [i.e. 'hysterical'] thinking. This obviates the need for censorship of the press, theater, or broadcasting, as a pathologically hypersensitive censor lives within the citizens themselves. (PP, p. 121)

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