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New suspected US-led Syria raids kill dozens of civilians

08 December 2015 03:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Suspected US-led coalition air strikes killed at least 26 civilians in a Syrian village, piling pressure on the alliance after allegations another bombing raid left regime soldiers deads, APA reports quoting AFP.

The coalition has been bombarding the Islamic State group for more than a year in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, where the jihadists have declared a self-styled caliphate.

But according to a monitoring group, strikes on Monday on the village of Al-Khan in northeastern Syria only left civilians dead.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS is in control of Al-Khan but is only on its outskirts, "which is why all of the deaths were civilians".

The death toll included at least seven children and four women, he said, adding that it was likely to rise as more than a dozen civilians were still missing under rubble.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition said he had no details yet about the raid, but that a "credibility assessment" would review claims of civilian deaths.

Last month, the US said four civilians were "likely" to have been killed in strikes against IS in Iraq. And in November 2014, it admitted accidentally killing two children in a strike in Syria.

The Al-Khan strike came with the coalition already under pressure over allegations it carried out a raid the previous day that killed Syrian soldiers, in the first such case.