US-led raid kills 33 in Syria
A US-led coalition strike is reported to have killed 33 civilians in northern Syria ahead of a meeting yesterday of top officials in Washington focused on defeating the Islamic State group.
Rebels and jihadists pressed offensives inside the capital Damascus and the central province of Hama, just a day before new UN-brokered peace talks open in Geneva.
Years of diplomatic efforts have failed to end Syria's raging six-year conflict, which began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
The war has killed more than 320,000 people, sparked a major refugee crisis, and dragged in world powers including the US-led air coalition bombing Syria's jihadists since 2014.
A reported coalition strike in the northern province of Raqa early Tuesday has killed 33 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The monitor yesterday said that the strike hit a school being used as a temporary shelter for displaced families, about 30 kilometres west of IS-held Raqa city.
The US-led coalition is backing twin offensives to defeat IS in Raqa -- the Syrian heart of the group's so-called "Islamic caliphate" -- and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.
Top officials from the 68-nation alliance are set to meet in Washington to hear more about a revised plan drafted by the Pentagon and presented to US President Donald Trump in February.
Earlier this month, the coalition said its campaign in Syria and Iraq had unintentionally killed at least 220 civilians, but monitors say the real number is far higher.
This week, rebels and allied jihadists launched two surprise offensives on government positions in Damascus and central Hama province, opposition groups and the Observatory said.
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