US-led coalition raids kill dozens of civilians in eastern Syria

US-led Coalition air strikes Saturday killed at least 36 civilians related to the Islamic State group holdout in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, a Britain-based monitor said.

Seventeen children were among the family members killed in Abu Hassan village of Deir az-Zour province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.

A similar airstrike in Deir az-Zour took place on Thursday with a dozen minors being killed.

Syria’s state news agency and the Syrian Observatory on Thursday said airstrikes on the eastern province resulted in the killing of at least 18 people.

SANA news agency said Thursday’s airstrikes by the US-led coalition on IS-held parts of the eastern province of Deir az-Zour killed 23 and wounded many others.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes killed 18, including 12 children and teenagers.

US-backed fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been trying to take the IS-held pocket since September 10 under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition.

The area is home to some 15,000 people including hundreds of IS fighters.

The Syrian conflict began when the Baath regime, in power since 1963 and led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded with military force to peaceful protests demanding democratic reforms during the Arab Spring wave of uprisings, triggering an armed rebellion fuelled by mass defections from the Syrian army.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in the war, mostly by the regime and its powerful allies, and millions have been displaced both inside and outside of Syria.

The brutal tactics pursued mainly by the regime, which have included the use of chemical weapons, sieges, mass executions and torture against civilians have led to war crimes investigations.