Activists say U.S.-led strikes kill 52 civilians

BEIRUT — The U.S. military said Saturday it was investigating an activist group’s claim that at least 52 civilians were killed in U.S.-led air strikes near the Syrian border town of Kobani amid its campaign against the extremist Islamic State group.

The strikes happened Thursday and Friday on the Syrian village of Bir Mahli, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The U.S.-led coali- tion said its strikes during that time destroyed seven Islamic State positions and one of the group’s vehicles near Kobani. Kurdish fighters ultimately pushed the extremists out of the city after months of intense fighting.

On Saturday, the Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said the strikes only hit civilians in their homes in Bir Mhali, a mixed Kurdish and Arab village, killing 52, including seven children and nine women. His activist group relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for more than four years.

Maj. Curtis Kellogg, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said there was no information to confirm the Observatory’s claims.

“We currently have no information to corroborate allegations that coalition air strikes resulted in civilian casualties,” Kellogg said. “Regardless, we take all allegations seriously and will look into them further.”

Local journalist and activist Mustafa Bali, who was in a nearby village at the time of the clashes and the strikes, said he had only seen militants in the area around the village before the strikes.

Activists also said Saturday that suspected chlorine gas attacks by Syrian government helicopters injured some 40 people and killed a child in the northwest region.

Videos shared by the Syrian Civil Defense activist group showed medics and residents rushing children to a local hospital as they coughed, some gasping for air in Saraqeb, a town in Idlib province. A video from Nareb, another town in the province where a coalition of insurgent groups has made gains in recent days against troops loyal to President Bashar Assad, showed a medic receiving oxygen himself after rescuing people from another attack.

The Observatory said the attacks overnight Friday injured at least 40 civilians, including children. The Observatory said medical officials in Nareb said a child was killed, though the cause of death was not clear. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also reported the suspected chemical attack in Saraqeb.

There was no mention of the attacks in Syrian state media.