US-led coalition pounds IS-held village in eastern Syria

BEIRUT — US-led coalition warplanes and artillery are pounding a village held by the Islamic State group in the last area under their control in eastern Syria.

Tuesday’s bombardment of the village of Shaafa in Deir el-Zour province comes a day after a war monitoring group said nearly two dozen US-backed fighters were killed in the area.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS fighters took advantage of bad weather on Monday and launched a counteroffensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, killing 23 fighters and wounding others.

The group said nine IS fighters were also killed.

DeirEzzor 24, an activist collective, also reports heavy bombardment of Shaafa on Tuesday.

The SDF says it repelled the IS attack and gained more ground from IS near the Iraqi border.

— AP