The civilian death toll in air strikes thought to have been conducted by a US-led coalition on a jihadist-held Syrian village on Thursday has risen to 23, a monitor said.

The Islamic State group is facing simultaneous offensives in northern Syria by government forces, Turkish-backed rebels, and a US-supported alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

They are also being pummelled by Iraqi forces over the border in their most populous bastion Mosul.

“The raids hit the village of Al-Matab after midnight and were likely carried out by the coalition,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

At least eight children and six women were among the dead in Al-Matab, which is held by the Islamic State group.

The village lies near a key road linking IS’s de facto Syria capital Raqa with the partly-IS held city of Deir Ezzor further down the Euphrates Valley.

On Monday, fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces cut off the road in a bid to encircle the jihadists in Raqa.

The US-led coalition has been backing the SDF’s drive on the IS stronghold with air power and hundreds of military advisers.

Abdel Rahman said SDF fighters were advancing on Al-Matab, which lies about 55 kilometres (35 miles) southeast of Raqa.

The SDF launched its drive on the city in early November and has since seized swathes of territory.

But it is despised by Ankara, which condemns the group’s dominant component — the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — as “terrorists” because of its links to an outlawed Kurdish rebel group in Turkey.

The profusion of forces operating in Syria — particularly in its fractured north — has led to a deeply complex battlefield and tensions between the rival parties.

The US-led coalition fighting IS said earlier this month that its raids in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed at least 220 civilians since 2014.

Critics say the real number is much higher.

Further east, in Deir Ezzor province, suspected Russian strikes hit the IS-held town of Al-Mayadeen, killing seven civilians and wounding 70, the Observatory said.

“The dead included three children and their parents,” said Abdel Rahman.

Al-Mayadeen lies on the Euphrates River between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

More than 310,000 people have been killed since conflict broke out in Syria in March 2011 with protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. </s> Air strikes killed 23 civilians, including eight children, on Thursday in countryside around the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State's base in Syria, a war monitoring group said.

The warplanes were believed to belong to the US-led coalition against the Islamic State militants, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The jets struck the village of al-Matab southeast of Raqqa, near the Euphrates River, the Observatory said, adding that several air raids had also pounded areas east of the city.

An alliance of Syrian militias has been waging an offensive on Raqqa with air strikes and special ground forces from the US-led coalition.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces cut the last main road out of Raqqa this week, severing the highway between the city and the militant group's stronghold of Deir al-Zor.

The US military has said it makes "extraordinary efforts" to avoid civilian deaths in its bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The military's estimates of civilians killed by coalition air strikes are generally far lower than those of monitoring groups. </s> Air strikes killed at least 23 civilians including 10 children in a village held by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

“We don’t know for the moment if the US-led international coalition or Iraqi forces carried out the strike” on the village of Al-Qasr in Hasakeh province, the Observatory said.

The Britain-based monitor relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information.

The US-led coalition, which is backing a Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting IS near Syria’s eastern border with Iraq, denied it carried out the strikes.

“There are no strikes in that area reflected in the… strike logs as of today,” the coalition said in a written response to AFP.

Iraq has also previously carried out strikes against IS jihadists in Syria, including a raid last month in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

The jihadists have lost much of the territory they once controlled in Syria and Iraq since declaring a cross-border caliphate there in 2014.

In Syria, they have faced two separate offensives — one by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces alliance and a second by Russia-backed regime fighters.

In February, US-led coalition air raids killed 25 civilians including seven children in the village of Shaafah in Deir Ezzor province and surrounding areas, according to the Observatory.

The coalition says it takes every precaution to avoid civilian casualties.

Last week, it acknowledged the deaths of 28 civilians in Iraq and Syria in 2017.

That increased its overall death toll of non-fighters killed in coalition strikes since 2014 in both countries to at least 883.

Monitoring group Airwars says the true toll of the bombing campaign is much higher, estimating that at least 6,259 civilians have been killed. </s> At least 23 civilians, including eight children, have been killed in air raids on an ISIL-held village in northern Syria, according to a monitor.

The fighter jets that carried out the strikes were believed to belong to the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) armed group, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday.



"The raids hit the village of al-Matab after midnight and were likely carried out by the coalition," according to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory.



At least six women were also among the dead in al-Matab, which lies near a key road linking Raqqa - ISIL's de facto capital - to Deir Az Zor city, the capital of the adjacent oil-rich province.

On Monday, fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) cut off that route in an effort to encircle the the ISIL fighters in Raqqa.



The US-led coalition has been backing the SDF's drive for Raqqa with air power and hundreds of special operations forces as advisers.



The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, launched its offensive for Raqqa in early November, and has since seized swaths of territory in northern Syria.



But its advance has angered Turkey, which sees the umbrella group's dominant YPG militia (People's Protection Units) - as an extension of Kurdish PKK fighters. The PKK has waged a three-decade conflict in southeastern Turkey.



The profusion of forces operating in Syria - particularly in its fractured north - has led to a deeply complex battlefield and tensions between different parties.

READ MORE: Idlib's rebel split - A crossroads for Syrian opposition

The US-led coalition fighting ISIL in Syria and Iraq said earlier this month that its raids had unintentionally killed at least 220 civilians since 2014 in both countries.

Critics say the real number is much higher.

Elsewhere in Syria, fighter jets pounded the rebel-held city of Kfranbel in Idlib province, killing at least four people, according to activists at the scene.

Media activist Hadi al-Abdullah said four air strikes on civilian areas in Kfranbel left heavy damage and killed at least two children.

He said dozens of others were wounded in the early-morning raids. </s> A flurry of airstrikes by planes belonging to the US-led anti-ISIS coalition attacked the village of al-Matab today, just southeast of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa. The strikes killed 23 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with at least eight of them children.

Coalition spokesman Col. John Dorrian confirmed that US warplanes were carrying out airstrikes in the area in question, but said there was no way to know whether their airstrikes were the ones causing the casualties. He promised an investigation.

Of course, US investigations into airstrikes in Iraq and Syria almost never result in credible death tolls, with most of the investigations scrapped before any conclusion is reached, and the “official” US death toll less than 10% of the civilian toll from strikes reported by NGOs.

US officials are claiming a number of ISIS leadership figures have been trying to flee southeast from Raqqa into Deir Ezzor Province, and that the US and their allies are trying to cut off the road between the two. Whether bombing civilians in a village in the area is part of that plan is unclear.
• Centcom Commander Expects More US Troops Will Be Sent to Afghanistan - March 9th, 2017
• US Army Seeking New Bases for Deployments in Europe - March 9th, 2017 </s> US-led coalition’s air strikes kill at least 25 civilians in Syria

The US-led coalition’s air strikes have killed at least 25 civilians in the Syrian province of Al-Hasakah, leaving dozens wounded, TASS with reference to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Tuesday.

According to SANA, on Tuesday morning, air strikes were carried out on the Al-Fadl settlement located near the city of Al-Shaddadi. There are two elderly people among the victims, as well as women and children. Several residential dwellings have been destroyed, SANA reported.

Follow Trend on Telegram. Only most interesting and important news </s> The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets. (Photo: Representational/AP)

Beirut: A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early Friday killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group told .

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," Abdel Rahman told.

The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."

The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of fierce bombing.

According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday.

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria. Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March. Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014. </s> GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief called on all air forces operating in Syria on Friday to take greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians in their escalating air strikes especially in the northeast against Islamic State.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein of Jordan address a news conference during his visit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

“The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Deir-ez-Zor and Al-Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

Air strikes in mid-May killed nearly two dozen farmworkers, most of them women, in a village in eastern Raqqa and at least 59 civilians in residential areas of Deir al-Zor, Zeid said.

An air strike on Thursday evening killed at least 35 civilians, including family members of Islamic State fighters, in al-Mayadin, a town held by the jihadists near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State told Reuters that its forces had conducted strikes near al-Mayadin on May 25 and 26 and were assessing the results.

Zeid’s spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva briefing on Friday: “There are multiple air forces operating in this part of Syria including the (U.S.-led) coalition, mainly the coalition. We also understand that there are Iraqi airplanes as well.”

“I can’t begin to identify who is responsible,” he added.

Islamic State forces, fighting to keep their stronghold in northeast Syria, have carried out summary executions of civilians, including slitting the throats of eight men at sites of air strikes after accusing them or providing coordinates, Zeid said.

“Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas,” he added.

The U.N. human rights office also voiced concern at credible reports that Islamic State is preventing civilians from leaving areas under their control, noting that this violated international law.

“Unfortunately there is little doubt that ISIL (Islamic State) continues constantly to kill and endanger civilians, committing war crimes without any compunction whatsoever,” Zeid said. </s> An air strike Thursday evening killed at least 35 civilians, including family members of Islamic State fighters, in al-Mayadin, a town held by the jihadists near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.

Two days of aerial bombardment in al-Mayadin have now killed a total of 50 people, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State told Reuters that its forces had conducted strikes near al-Mayadin on May 25 and 26 and were assessing the results.

Residents saw reconnaissance aircraft and warplanes circling the city at 7:25 p.m. (1625 GMT) before they fired missiles, which struck two buildings, one of which was a four-story block housing Syrian and Moroccan families of Islamic State fighters.

In Geneva on Friday, the U.N. human rights chief called on all air forces operating in Syria to take greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians in their escalating air strikes especially in the northeast against Islamic State.

“The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Deir-ez-Zor and Al-Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

His spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva briefing: “There are multiple air forces operating in this part of Syria, including the (U.S.-led) coalition, mainly the coalition. We also understand that there are Iraqi airplanes as well.”

Islamic State is losing ground in Syria and Iraq under assault from an array of sometimes rival forces in both countries. Many of its fighters who have retreated from other fronts are massing in Syria’s Euphrates basin area.

The U.S.-led coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in air strikes and investigates any that are reported to have taken place.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, multiple suspected U.S.-led coalition air raids kill at least 23 civilians in the village of al-Matab in northern Syria.