More than 1,000 jihadists killed in US-led Syria strikes: Monitor

BEIRUT - Agence France-Presse

ISIL militants stand just before explosion of an air strike on Tilsehir hill near Turkish border on Oct. 23. AFP Photo / Bülent Kılıç

U.S.-led air strikes in Syria have killed more than 1,000 jihadists in the past three months, nearly all of them from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a monitoring group said Dec. 23.

"At least 1,171 have been killed in the Arab and international air strikes (since September 23), including 1,119 jihadists of ISIL and al-Nusra Front," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists and medics across the war-ravaged country for its information.

Among those killed were 1,046 members of the ISIL group, which has seized large chunks of Iraq and Syria and is the main target of the U.S.-led air strikes.

Seventy-two of those killed were members of al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, while another was a jihadist prisoner whose affiliation was unknown, the Observatory said in a statement. The remaining 52 were civilians.

 ISIL has declared a "caliphate" in the parts of Iraq and Syria that it has overrun, and its militants have been accused of widespread atrocities, including beheading Western hostages.