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Airstrikes on IS-held villages in Syria kill 56

“Residents were fleeing the village of Al-Tukhar in Aleppo province when the strikes hit”, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

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At least 56 civilians were killed on Tuesday morning in US-led airstrikes in Manbej town of Syria, a monitor group said. “Families are unable to access local cemeteries to bury their relatives who have died or been killed, and are burying them in their gardens or keeping the corpses in bunkers”, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.

The US-led anti-terror coalition has been backing the rebel’s Syrian Democratic Forces to capture the town since May past year.

Postings on a Facebook page show images of people, including children, as they were being put in collective grave, purportedly in the village of Tokhar.

Tuesday’s casualties come on the heels of similar airstrikes on the Daesh-held town of Manbij on Monday, when at least 15 civilians were reportedly killed.

The Islamic State headquarters, which was located in a hospital, was being used as a command center and logistics hub.

Manbij’s value is primarily its location along the Tigris River, where it links ISIS territory along the Turkish border in Aleppo to its de facto capital city of Raqqa. Supported by US coalition air strikes, the SDF have surrounded the city, but Islamic State attacks still occur in some areas of the surrounding countryside.

He said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians being mistaken for IS fighters. On Monday, 21 people were killed in raids also believed to have been conducted by USA -led coalition aircraft on Manbij’s northern Hazawneh quarter.

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Manbej has a strategic importance to the USA -backed rebels due to its location near Turkey. In neighboring Iraq, meanwhile, IS has been beaten back on several fronts, with Iraqi forces, aided by USA -led coalition airstrikes, having retaken the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in western Anbar province.

The Islamic State headquarters which was located in a hospital was being used as a command center and logistics hub