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U.S.-led airstrikes kill 56 civilians in IS-held Syrian town

Xinhua, July 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S.-led airstrikes are accused to have killed over 56 civilians in a besieged Syrian town near Turkey on Tuesday morning, according to a monitor group.

The "massacre" targeted Manbej, a town controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group in the northern countryside of Aleppo province.

The U.S.-led anti-terror coalition has been backing the rebels' Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to capture the town since last May, succeeding so far to lay a siege on the IS fighters and some 100,000 civilians in the town.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 children were among those killed when the airstrikes targeted the northern countryside of Manbej at dawn Tuesday.

The UK-based watchdog group had already raised the death toll of civilians by the U.S. coalition in Manbej to over 104, who it said were killed between May and July 18.

Manbej has a strategic importance to the U.S.-backed rebels due to its location near Turkey.

Capturing Manbej would deprive IS from a key stronghold near Turkey. Endit