BEIRUT: An air strike on one of the last holdouts of the militant Islamic State group in eastern Syria has killed 54 people, more than half of them civilians, a war monitor said on Friday. The US-led coalition fighting the jihadists said it or its allies may have carried out air raids in the area, and it was investigating the alleged civilian deaths.

The raid late Thursday on an ice factory near the village of Al-Soussa close to the Iraqi border killed 28 civilians and 26 IS jihadists, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It was not immediately clear if the raid on the eastern Deir Ezzor province was carried out by an Iraqi plane or the coalition, according to the monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

In a written statement, the US-led alliance said: “The coalition or our partner forces may have conducted strikes in the vicinity of Al-Soussa and Baghour Fukhani” on Thursday.

“We are forwarding the report to our Civilian Casualty Cell for further assessment on this allegation,” it said.

Iraqi warplanes have recently carried out strikes against IS in eastern Syria, while coalition aircraft have been supporting Kurdish-led fighters battling the jihadists. The IS fighters were Syrians and Iraqis, the Observatory said.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported the strike late Thursday, saying more than 30 civilians were killed and accusing the coalition of carrying it out.

The foreign ministry in Damascus decried the coalition for “only succeeding in killing innocent Syrians and destroying Syrian infrastructure”, in a statement carried by the outlet.

Al-Soussa lies to the east of the Euphrates River, in a pocket of territory still held by the jihadists.

IS fighters have been expelled from most urban centres in Syria, but analysts say they have retained their ability to pounce from the desert.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2018