At least 23 civilians, including some ten children, have been killed in suspected US-led airstrikes in the eastern Syrian province of Hasakah yesterday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The victims of the strike on the village of Al-Qasr are believed to have belonged to two families, with several people still in critical condition.

“We don’t know for the moment if the US-led international coalition or Iraqi forces carried out the strike,” the UK-based rights watch group said.

Yesterday, the State Department announced that US backed forces had relaunched their offensive to seize the last territory controlled by Daesh near the Iraqi border.

“We have rearranged our ranks,” Lilwa Al-Abdallah, spokeswoman for the offensive, told reporters at a press conference at an oilfield on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river. “Our heroic forces will liberate these areas and secure the border. … We welcome the support of the Iraqi forces.”

Read: Syrian army says captured villages from US-backed forces

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were forced to pause their battle in the east after Turkey launched an assault in January against militia groups in the northern Afrin region, the Pentagon said this week.

Turkey is currently undertaking an air and ground offensive in Syria as part of “Operation Olive Branch” against the YPG, Kurdish militias that have been affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a designated terror organisation that has launched continual attacks against Turkey. The YPG make up a large proportion of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the US has backed in the fight against Daesh.

SDF militias redeployed some 1,700 fighters from eastern fronts against Daesh to help fight Turkish forces, only for Turkey to successfully captured Afrin in March. Ahmed Abu Khawla, commander of the Deir Ez-Zor military council fighting under the SDF, said that those forces have now returned to the east to oust Daesh militants.

On Monday, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said that the US will not withdraw its forces from Syria unless peace is fully achieved throughout the country.

“We do not want to simply pull out before the diplomats have won the peace, so you win the fight and then you win the peace,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

The announcement comes after conflicting statements from US President Donald Trump and the State Department last month on the US’ future presence in the region.

Read: White House says Trump still wants US troops out of Syria as soon as possible</s>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 U.S.-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 U.S-led coalition.</s>Syrian state media and a war monitoring group say airstrikes in Islamic State-held territory in north-eastern Syria have killed at least 23 people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear if US-led coalition or Iraqi warplanes carried out the attack in the Hassakeh province.

The Observatory said those killed included 10 children, six women and seven elderly people.

The strikes took place in an area where US-backed and Kurdish-led forces are fighting to drive IS from some of the last pockets of territory it controls.

The state-run Syrian News Agency said 25 civilians were killed in the airstrikes south of Shadadi, blaming the US-led coalition.</s>BEIRUT -- Airstrikes killed at least 23 civilians Tuesday in one of the last pockets of Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria, Syrian state media outlets and an opposition-linked monitoring group said, as U.S.-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 U.S.-led coalition or the Iraqi air force. It said the strikes killed 10 children, six women and seven elderly people. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said 25 civilians were killed in the airstrikes south of the town of Shadadi, blaming the U.S.-led coalition.

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

In an email, the U.S.-led coalition said initial reports suggest there were no coalition airstrikes in the area where the deadly raids are said to have taken place.

Lelwa Abdullah, a Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman in the adjacent Deir el-Zour province, said Tuesday that the final phase of a large operation against the Islamic State in eastern Syria has begun.

The Democratic Forces had redeployed hundreds of its forces to western Syria after Turkish troops attacked the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave earlier this year, effectively putting operations against the Islamic State on hold.

[THE ISLAMIC STATE: Timeline of group’s rise, fall; details on campaign to fight it]

The U.S. State Department, using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State, said the days of the militants controlling territory in Syria "are coming to an end" and that the renewed operations are intended to "liberate the final ISIS strongholds in Syria."

President Donald Trump has said he wants to pull U.S. troops out as soon as the extremists are defeated. But State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said the U.S. will "ensure that there is a strong and lasting footprint in Syria such that ISIS cannot return."

Elsewhere Tuesday in Syria, more than three dozen Syrians held for years by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in the country's northwest were released as part of a deal to hand over areas around Damascus to the government, state media outlets reported.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast images of the released men, women and children who arrived by bus at a government-controlled checkpoint in Aleppo province.

Many were in tears, and they could be seen kissing and hugging Syrian soldiers. The captives had been held by the insurgents in northern Syria since 2015.

Insurgents have agreed to a series of evacuation deals for areas around the capital that have been besieged for years and subjected to heavy bombardment by government forces. The U.N. and rights groups have criticized the deals, saying they amount to forced displacement.</s>US-led coalition’s air strikes kill at least 25 civilians in Syria

The US-led coalition’s air strikes have killed at least 25 civilians in the Syrian province of Al-Hasakah, leaving dozens wounded, TASS with reference to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Tuesday.

According to SANA, on Tuesday morning, air strikes were carried out on the Al-Fadl settlement located near the city of Al-Shaddadi. There are two elderly people among the victims, as well as women and children. Several residential dwellings have been destroyed, SANA reported.

Follow Trend on Telegram. Only most interesting and important news</s>Air strikes killed at least 23 civilians including 10 children in a village held by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

“We don’t know for the moment if the US-led international coalition or Iraqi forces carried out the strike” on the village of Al-Qasr in Hasakeh province, the Observatory said.

The Britain-based monitor relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information.

The US-led coalition, which is backing a Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting IS near Syria’s eastern border with Iraq, denied it carried out the strikes.

“There are no strikes in that area reflected in the… strike logs as of today,” the coalition said in a written response to AFP.

Iraq has also previously carried out strikes against IS jihadists in Syria, including a raid last month in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

The jihadists have lost much of the territory they once controlled in Syria and Iraq since declaring a cross-border caliphate there in 2014.

In Syria, they have faced two separate offensives — one by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces alliance and a second by Russia-backed regime fighters.

In February, US-led coalition air raids killed 25 civilians including seven children in the village of Shaafah in Deir Ezzor province and surrounding areas, according to the Observatory.

The coalition says it takes every precaution to avoid civilian casualties.

Last week, it acknowledged the deaths of 28 civilians in Iraq and Syria in 2017.

That increased its overall death toll of non-fighters killed in coalition strikes since 2014 in both countries to at least 883.

Monitoring group Airwars says the true toll of the bombing campaign is much higher, estimating that at least 6,259 civilians have been killed.</s>On Tuesday, Syrian media reported that the US-led coalition had carried out airstrikes on residential areas in the al-Fadel village in the Hasakah countryside, leaving more than 25 civilians killed and over 100 injured and inflicting serious damage to infrastructure.

According to the letter, quoted by the SANA news agency, Damascus stressed that the continuation of the US-led international coalition’s "massacres" against the Syrian people aimed to undermine sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria and prolong the crisis in the Arab Republic.

In the letter, the ministry also urged the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility for international peace and security and prevent the recurrence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the coalition, as well as put an end to the latter’s "illegitimate presence" on Syrian soil.

READ MORE: Militants Agree to Leave Their Last Stronghold North of Syria's Homs — Reports

The US-led coalition of more than 70 members is conducting military operations against Daesh in Syria and Iraq since September 2014. The coalition's strikes in Iraq are conducted in cooperation with Iraqi officials, but those in Syria are not authorized by the government of President Bashar Assad or the United Nations Security Council.

*Daesh (aka Islamic State, IS, ISIS, ISIL) is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia</s>The Latest on the Syria conflict (all times local):

Syrian state media and a war monitoring group say airstrikes in Islamic State-held territory in northeastern Syria have killed at least 23 people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear if U.S.-led coalition or Iraqi warplanes carried out the attack Tuesday in the Hassakeh province. The Observatory said those killed included 10 children, six women and seven elderly people.

The strikes took place in an area where U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces are fighting to drive IS from some of the last pockets of territory it controls.

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

U.S-backed Kurdish forces in Syria say they are resuming their campaign against Islamic State militants who still control areas near the border with Iraq.

Lelwa Abdullah, a spokeswoman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the eastern Deir el-Zour province, said Tuesday the final phase of the operation against IS in the area 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."

The SDF had redeployed hundreds of its forces to western Syria after Turkish troops attacked the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave earlier this year, effectively putting operations against IS on hold.

An array of Syrian and Iraqi forces has driven IS from nearly all the territory it once held in the two countries.

Syrian state-run media say 42 people who were held for years by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in the country's northwest have been released as part of a deal to hand over areas around Damascus back to the government.

Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast images Tuesday of the released, including women and children, arriving by bus at a government-controlled checkpoint, kissing and hugging Syrian soldiers.

The 42 are the first batch of more than 80 who are to be released.

According to the deal, al-Qaida-linked fighters are to evacuate from a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus while some 5,000 people in two northwestern villages besieged by insurgents will be allowed to move to government-held areas.

This is the latest in evacuation deals —which are effectively capitulation — amid intense military offensives.</s>BEIRUT: Air strikes killed at least 23 civilians including 10 children in a village held by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

“We don’t know for the moment if the US-led international coalition or Iraqi forces carried out the strike” on the village of Al-Qasr in the northeastern province of Hasakeh, the Britain-based monitor said.—AFP</s>Airstrikes have killed at least 23 civilians in one of the last pockets of Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria, according to Syrian state media.

Meanwhile, 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 US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are battling IS.

Lelwa Abdullah, an SDF spokeswoman in the adjacent Deir el-Zour province, said 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”.

The SDF had redeployed hundreds of its forces to western Syria after Turkish troops attacked the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave earlier this year, effectively putting operations against IS on hold.

Ms Abdullah said IS attacks have increased in recent weeks in parts of eastern Syria near the border with Iraq as the extremist group seeks to regroup.

She said the clearing operations will take place with the help of the US-led coalition and Iraqi forces across the border.

Elsewhere in Syria on Tuesday, more than three dozen Syrians held for years by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in the country’s north west were released as part of a deal to hand over areas around Damascus to the government, state media reported.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast images of the released men, women, children, who arrived by bus at a government-controlled checkpoint in Aleppo province.

Many were in tears, and they could be seen kissing and hugging Syrian soldiers. The captives had been held by the insurgents in northern Syria since 2015.

It is the latest in a series of evacuation deals for areas around the capital that have been besieged for years and subjected to heavy bombardment by government forces.

The UN and rights groups have criticised the deals, saying they amount to forced displacement.

The latest deal concerns Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp that was a built-up residential area before the civil war.

IS militants still control parts of the camp and a neighbouring area, where they are battling government forces.

The 42 people freed on Tuesday are the first batch of more than 80 to be released.

Under the deal, fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group will withdraw from Yarmouk, while about 5,000 people in Foua and Kfraya, two north-western villages besieged by insurgents, will be allowed to relocate to government-held areas.
At least 23 civilians die in a airstrike near Shadadi, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has stated it is not clear who carried out the attack, listing Iraq and US-led coalition as two possibilities. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency claims the US-led coalition is responsible.