23 Mar 2017

US-led air strike 'kills dozens in village'

12:04 am on 23 March 2017

At least 33 people have been killed in an air strike on a school near the Islamic State-held Syrian city of Raqqa, a monitoring group says.

Smoke billows following a reported air strike in the rebel-held parts of the Jobar district, on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus.

Smoke billows after a reported air strike in the rebel-held eastern outskirts of Damascus, Syria, earlier this month. Photo: AFP

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believed the strike was carried out by the United States-led coalition aiming for the IS jihadist group.

The building, in al-Mansoura, was being used as a shelter for displaced people when it was hit on Monday night.

The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said the fate of 50 families who were there was unknown.

Both groups believed the raid was carried out by jets from the United States-led coalition.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition, but it has said there were 19 strikes near Raqqa on Monday, including three that destroyed Islamic State headquarters.

The coalition is supporting an offensive by an alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters aimed at capturing Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital.

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