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Reuters/AFP
BEIRUT
Air strikes since Thursday evening have killed more than 100 people, including children and other family members of Islamic State fighters in al-Mayadin, a town held by the fighters near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raids were carried out by US-led coalition warplanes.
The Observatory said more than 40 children were among those killed in the strikes, which levelled al-Mayadin's municipality building. Residents saw reconnaissance aircraft and warplanes circling the city at 7:25 pm before they fired missiles which struck two buildings, one of which was a four-storey block housing Syrian and Moroccan families of Islamic State fighters.
More strikes took place after midnight.
The US military on Friday confirmed that it had struck"near Mayadeen" on May 25 and 26, but said it was"still assessing the results of those strikes", according to Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon.
The US military insists that it takes every precaution to avoid hitting civilians, but the United Nations on Friday urged parties bombing IS to do more.
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said"all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed"to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians".
The Observatory gathered its information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen.
The town has seen an influx of displaced families from IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria, including its bastion Raqqa.
It is in Syria's oil-rich east near the border with Iraq ” a region considered a prize by many of IS's enemies including the Syrian army.
Troops loyal to President Bashar al Assad scored a key victory this week by linking the capital Damascus to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Palmyra in central Syria. It was the first time the government was in full control of the Damascus-Palmyra highway since 2014. page 12
