At least 14 civilians from the same family were killed Wednesday in U.S.-led airstrikes on eastern Deir-ez-Zor province, topping the death toll to a total of 400 people in two months of daily bombing, local activists said.
Strikes by U.S. warplanes targeted the village of Khasham with internationally banned weapons, according to activists.
Meanwhile, two more people were killed and eight wounded in Islamic State (ISIS) shelling on regime-held areas in the Al-Qusour neighborhood of Deir-ez-Zor city.
In Raqqa, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces closed in on the provincial capital on Wednesday, taking territory on the south bank of the Euphrates River with the aim of encircling the city, a militia spokesman told Reuters.
The SDF, which include Arab and Kurdish fighters and is supported by U.S.-led coalition air cover, began an offensive two weeks ago to seize the northern city from ISIS, which overran it in 2014.
U.K.-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the SDF had moved along the southern riverbank to reach the eastern edge of Kasrat al-Farj, in the area between the new and old bridges into Raqqa.
ISIS is also facing defeat in its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul and is being forced into retreat across much of Syria, where Deir-ez-Zor is its last major foothold.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
