Int'l anti-terror coalition kills 17 in northern Syria: activists

At least 17 civilians were killed and over 40 others wounded on Friday by the airstrikes of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition on a village in northern Syria, a monitor group reported.

The warplanes of the anti-terror alliance struck the village of Beirmhali in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo province in northern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll could rise due to the large number of critically wounded people.

It said the recent killings add to the previous estimates, which indicate that 66 civilians were killed by the international coalition airstrikes against the positions of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria since the coalition started its strikes in the war-torn country in September 2014.

Separately Friday, a total of 12 Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and 35 IS militants were killed during clashes that erupted between both sides in the northern province of al-Hasakah, said the Observatory.

The UK-based watchdog group said the YPG advanced against the IS in some areas in al-Hasakah, a predominantly-Kurdish province.

Meanwhile, the Observatory said the Syrian government forces gunned down a rebel commander known as Khadid al-Hayani, who leads the Badr Martyrs brigade in the northern city of Aleppo.

It added that Al-Hayani and his group are the main responsible for shelling the government-controlled areas in Aleppo with mortars and other improvised rocket shelling known as the Hell Canon.

The Observatory said 568 people, including 130 kids, were killed last year alone as a result of the rebel shelling on the government-controlled areas in western Aleppo. Endit