Unidentified warplanes 'kill 22 civilians in Syria's Deir az-Zour'

Air raids carried out by unidentified aircraft killed at least 22 civilians, including 10 children, in a village held by the Islamic State group [IS] in eastern Syria, monitors said on Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [SOHR] said the civilians were from two families at Hojna in Deir az-Zour, which borders Iraq and is the country's second biggest province after Homs.

Jalal al-Hamd, head a monitoring group in Deir az-Zour, told The New Arab that warplanes thought to belong to the Syrian regime targeted Hojna with several air raids killing civilians, including women and children.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency also reported more than 20 civilians had been killed in air raids conducted by the Syrian regime.

The oil-rich province of Deir az-Zour is almost totally under IS control and has been regularly targeted by a US-led military coalition.

The only part of the eastern province outside of IS control is its capital, which is also named Deir az-Zour and is held by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

IS has carried out a series of attacks across Europe and has been targeted by military offensives on several fronts in Syria and Iraq, where it declared an Islamic "caliphate" in 2014.

In Syria, IS is targeted by warplanes of the US-led coalition as well as Turkey, the Syrian regime and its ally Russia in the northern province of Aleppo, Deir az-Zour and its stronghold of Raqqa.