Russian, US-led strikes kill 35 civilians in Syria’s Deir Ezzor

BEIRUT: Separate Russian and US-led coalition air strikes yesterday killed 35 civilians in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, where parallel offensives against the Islamic State group are under way, a monitor said. The province lies along Syria’s border with Iraq and is seen as a strategic prize by both the Russian-backed Syrian regime and an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces supported by the USled coalition fighting IS. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, had earlier reported a toll of 28 dead in Russian and US-led strikes, but raised the figure after new Russian raids on the village of Hawayej Thiab in the west of the province.