Raqa civilians face 'deadly labyrinth'

Civilians fleeing the battle to oust the Islamic State group from the Syrian city of Raqa face a "deadly labyrinth", coming under fire from all sides, rights group Amnesty warned yesterday.

Meanwhile, the United Nations called for pauses in fighting against the Islamic State group Raqa to help civilians escape increasingly deadly battles.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters backed by US-led coalition warplanes, has retaken 60 percent of Raqa from the jihadists.

"Now is the time to think of possibilities, pauses or otherwise that might facilitate the escape of civilians," Jan Egeland, head of the UN's humanitarian taskforce for Syria, told reporters in Geneva.

Egeland said any humanitarian pause would of course not involve IS, which is doing its "absolute best to use (civilians) as human shields."

The fighting has proved increasingly bloody for civilians still trapped in Raqa, with one monitor reporting 167 civilians have been killed in coalition strikes in and around the city since August 14.

The UN estimates that up to 25,000 civilians may remain in the city but tens of thousands of others have already fled, risking IS sniper fire and mines.

The US-led coalition says it takes all possible precautions to avoid civilian casualties.

The coalition earlier this month acknowledged the deaths of 624 civilians in its strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014.