US-led air strikes in Syria kill 553 in first month: monitor

BEIRUT - Agence France-Presse

Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobane after a US-led coalition strike, as seen from the Turkish-Syrian border. AFP Photo

Air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria have killed 553 people since their launch a month ago, the vast majority of them jihadists, a monitoring group said on Oct. 23.
     
The strikes have killed 464 Islamic State group fighters, 57 militants from Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and 32 civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
      
Among the civilians killed were six children and five women, said the Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.
      
The US-led coalition against the Islamic State launched air strikes against IS on September 23, expanding a previous aerial campaign launched against the group in Iraq in August.
     
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP the "vast majority" of jihadists killed in the strikes were not Syrians but foreign fighters who had joined IS and Nusra in the country.