Airstrikes kill 23 in IS-held territory in Syria

Airstrikes killed at least 23 civilians on Tuesday in one of the last pockets of Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria, according to Syrian state media and an opposition-linked monitoring group, as US-backed forces in the area announced they have resumed their campaign against the extremists.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear if the airstrikes in the Hassakeh province were carried out by the US-led coalition or the Iraqi air force. It said the strikes killed 10 children, six women and seven elderly people.

The state-run Syrian News Agency said 25 civilians were killed in the airstrikes south of the town of Shadadi, blaming the US-led coalition.

The strikes took place in an area where the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are battling IS.

Lelwa Abdullah, an SDF spokeswoman in the adjacent Deir el-Zour province, said Tuesday the final phase of a large operation against IS in eastern Syria has begun. She said the SDF will "liberate those areas and secure the Syrian-Iraqi border and end the IS presence in eastern Syria once and for all."