Rights group says US-led coalition kills 84 in Syria airstrike

An international human rights group says two airstrikes by the US-led coalition on northern Syria earlier this year killed 84 civilians, including 30 children.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the attack raises concerns that the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group did not take “adequate precautions to minimize civilian casualties.”

The coalition has been targeting IS in Syria since September 2014. Airstrikes intensified in recent months as the extremists are being squeezed on several fronts by different groups.

HRW says it documented coalition attacks in March on a school that was housing displaced families in the town of Mansourah and a market and a bakery in the town of Tabqa, west of the city of Raqqa. It says IS fighters were present at the sites and so were scores of civilians.

— AP