Casualties reported as coalition airstrikes target IS-held Syria town

The US-led coalition says it has hit a mosque it claimed was being used by the Islamic State group as a command and control centre near the town of Baghouz in eastern Syria, amid reports of casualties.

The coalition said on Tuesday it launched the strike in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who are fighting to drive the extremists from their last tiny stronghold around the town near the border with Iraq.

It said the strike occurred Monday as IS was using the mosque to direct attacks and employ suicide car bombs against the SDF.

The coalition’s deputy commander, Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, was quoted in the statement as saying “this mosque lost its protected status when ISIS deliberately chose to use it as a command and control center.”

There were reports of civilian casualties from suspected coalition airstrikes but it was not clear whether they were linked to the mosque strike.

Twitter Post

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US-led coalition killed at least 16 civilians near Baghouz on Monday. SOHR said at least half the dead are children.

The SDF on Saturday launched its final push to clear the area after months of fighting.

After a pause of more than a week to allow out civilians, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared a last push to retake the "Baghouz pocket" from the extremists on Saturday.

Aided by the warplanes and artillery of a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led alliance has made way into a patch of four square kilometres (one square mile).

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said heavy clashes were ongoing on Tuesday, after hundreds fled the battle zone overnight.

"A group of 600 civilians escaped from Baghouz at one in the morning and they are being searched now," he said.

The capture of the IS-held village of Baghouz and nearby areas would mark the end of a four-year global war to end IS' territorial hold over large parts of Syria and Iraq, where the group established its self-proclaimed "caliphate" in 2014.

More than 20,000 civilians have left the IS-held area in recent weeks.

US officials have said in recent weeks that IS has lost 99.5 percent of its territory and is holding onto fewer than 5 square kilometres in Syria (less than 2 square miles), where the bulk of the fighters are concentrated. 

But activists and residents say IS still has sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq, and is laying the groundwork for an insurgency.

The US military has warned the group could stage a comeback if the military and counter-terrorism pressure on it is eased.