Civilians killed by air strikes in Syria

AT LEAST 20 civilians, including some children, have been killed in suspected US-led coalition air strikes on a village east of Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria, activists reported.

The report comes as the militants come under mounting pressure from rival US-backed and Russian-backed forces working to seize Raqqa.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, said the strikes occurred before dawn on Tuesday and killed 23 people, including eight children.

Russian and Syrian aircraft are not known to operate in the area, according to the observatory and US-led coalition aircraft were believed to be behind the attack.

The coalition did not confirm the strikes and there was no immediate indication which nation’s aircraft were involved.

The US officials said on Wednesday that a few hundred marines have deployed into Syria with heavy artillery to prepare for the fight to oust IS from Raqqa.

Yesterday, engineers restored two water pumping stations that feed water to the country’s largest city, Aleppo, in territory captured by the Syrian government from IS militants this week, state media reported.

Aleppo, once Syria’s industrial capital, suffered for years from severe water shortages as the government and opposition fighters contested the city and IS controlled the pumping stations at the town of Khafseh on the Euphrates River.

Pro-government forces defeated the rebels in the city just before the new year and took Khafseh from IS militants earlier this week. Residents in Aleppo have depended on wells and water deliveries arranged by the government, charities and the UN.