US-led strike on Islamic State-held Syria town kills 23 civilians: Monitor

A US-led coalition air strike on Monday killed 23 civilians in eastern province of Deir al-Zor, a Syrian town held by the Islamic State group on the border with Iraq, a war monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike on the town of Albu Kamal hit around 3:00 am local time. They also said that jets thought to belong to the U.S.-led coalition hit the town of Al-Bukamal near the border with Iraq. The warplanes struck near a residential area and a mosque, wounding dozens more. Those killed in the strike were civilians displaced from other areas controlled by IS, including Syria’s Deir Ezzor and Raqa provinces, and neighbouring Iraq.

The Islamic State-linked media outlet Amaq said coalition strikes killed 15 people and wounded 35 others in Al-Bukamal. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State could not immediately be reached for comment.

The deaths came after another strike by the US-led coalition in Raqa province yesterday that killed 12 women, the monitor said.

The United States military has said it makes “extraordinary efforts” to avoid civilian deaths in its air strikes in Syria and Iraq.