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

The coalition acknowledges it has pounded the city and surrounding area with more than 250 air strikes over the past week alone, in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance battling IS.

The SDF has so far captured just under 60 per cent of Raqa, monitors say, leaving IS with about 10 square kilometres 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.

Nineteen children and 12 women were among the dead, the monitor said. The Observatory says 167 civilians have been killed in coalition strikes since August 14, including 27 on Sunday.

Speaking during a visit to Baghdad, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis insisted IS tactics were to blame for placing civilians in danger. “We are the good guys and the innocent people on the battlefield know the difference,” he said.

But the coalition acknowledges an major uptick in its strikes on Raqa, with more aircraft available since a US-backed operation successfully pushed IS from Mosul in neighbouring Iraq last month.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said more than 250 strikes had hit Raqa and its surroundings in the last week, and an AFP count of the coalition’s own reporting put the figure at over 300 strikes.

“It’s probably logical to assume there has been some increase in civilian casualties. But I would ask someone to show me hard information,” said Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, who commands the coalition.

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

The coalition, which operates in both countries, earlier this month acknowledged the deaths of 624 civilians in its strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014, but rights groups say the toll is much higher.

The SDF’s Arab and Kurdish fighters broke into Raqa in early June after spending months chipping away at IS-held territory in the surrounding province.

Activist collective Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) also reported heavy raids in recent days.

“Unfortunately, civilians have no way to protect themselves,” said RBSS’s Husaam Essa. “All they can do is try to hide in whatever shelter they can and avoid going out into the street as much as possible,” he said.

More than 330,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2017