US-led strikes hit Qaeda branch in Syria

US-led coalition air strikes hit al-Qaeda's Syrian branch overnight, expanding the raids to jihadists outside the Islamic State group for only the second time, a monitoring group said yesterday.

The strikes against Al-Nusra Front in northwestern Syria killed several jihadists as well as two children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Coalition aircraft carried out "several raids after midnight" targeting an Al-Nusra vehicle and one of its positions, the Observatory said.

The Observatory said that the coalition had also carried out strikes for the first time on another Islamist group, Ahrar al-Sham, near the Turkish border.

On the first day of the strikes they also hit a group of al-Qaeda veterans that Washington called "Khorasan", although analysts said the attack actually targeted Al-Nusra. There have been no reported strikes on groups outside ISIS since, but this second attack comes after Al-Nusra made gains against Western-backed rebel fighters in the northwestern Idlib region.