Dozens of civilians killed in US-led strikes in Raqa

Dozens of civilians have died in two days of intense US-led strikes on Raqa, a monitor said yesterday, as fighting to retake the Syrian city from jihadists nears its densely populated centre.

At least 250 US-led coalition strikes have hit Raqa city and the surrounding area in the last week, a coalition spokesman told AFP, as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces press an offensive in the city.

The SDF has so far captured just under 60 percent of Raqa, monitors say, leaving jihadists from the Islamic State group in control of about 10 square kilometres (four square miles) in the heart of the city.

But as clashes approach central Raqa, monitors and activists have reported scores killed in intensifying coalition bombardment of the city.

On Monday, US-led air strikes killed at least 42 civilians in several neighbourhoods in Raqa under IS control, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Nineteen children and 12 women were among the dead.

That takes to 167 the number of civilians killed in coalition strikes since August 14, after the Observatory said at least 27 were killed on Sunday.

"The tolls are high because the air strikes are hitting neighbourhoods in the city centre that are densely packed with civilians," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"There are buildings full of civilians who are trying to get away from the front lines."

The coalition says avoiding civilian casualties is its "highest priority."

Coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon told AFP that the latest allegations of civilian deaths would be taken seriously and investigated.