US-led airstrikes kill 32 civilians in Syria: Watchdog

At least 32 civilians were killed over the past 24 hours in US-led airstrikes on Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, a war watchdog reported on Friday.

The US coalition launched airstrikes on the town of Souseh, which is located in the last pocket held by Islamic State (IS) militants in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Women and children were among the killed in the aerial bombardment, reported Xinhua news agency quoting the London-based watchdog.

The US-led coalition is supporting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in their advance on the IS-held areas on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in eastern Deir al-Zour.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry recently urged the UN to conduct an international investigation into the "crimes" of the US-led coalition in Syria, charging that Washington is using the anti-IS battles as a pretext for continued intervention in Syria's affairs.

The US-led coalition entered the course of anti-IS battles in Syria in 2014 without the consent of the Syrian government, which questions its intention and brands its intervention as illegal.

--IANS

nir