Airstrikes kill 23 civilians in ISIS-held territory in Syria
BEIRUT — Airstrikes killed at least 23 civilians on Tuesday in one of the last pockets of Islamic Statecontrolled territory in Syria, according to Syrian state media and an oppositionlinked monitoring group, as U.S.-backed forces in the area announced they have resumed their campaign against the extremists.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear if the airstrikes in the Hassakeh province were carried out by the U.S.-led coalition or the Iraqi air force. It said the strikes killed 10 children, six wom- en and seven elderly people. The state-run Syrian News Agency said 25 civilians were killed in the airstrikes south of the town of Shadadi, blaming the U.S-led coalition.
The strikes took place in an area where the U.S.backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are battling the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.
In an email to The Associated Press, the U.S-led coalition said initial reports suggest there were no coalition airstrikes in the area where the deadly airstrikes are said to have taken place.
Lelwa Abdullah, an SDF spokeswoman, said Tuesday the final phase of a large operation against the Islamic State group in eastern Syria has begun. She said the SDF will “liberate those areas and secure the Syrian-Iraqi border and end the (ISIS) presence in eastern Syria once and for all.”
The SDF had redeployed hundreds of its forces to western Syria after Turkish troops attacked the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave earlier this year, effectively putting operations against Islamic State militants on hold.