US-led Syria strikes 'kill civilians’

Air strikes by the US-led coalition targeting Islamic State militants have killed more than 50 civilians in northern Syria, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group, says Birmahle village was hit on Friday and that some people were still trapped in rubble.

The coalition has so far not commented.

Earlier this month, the Observatory said the US-led air campaign had killed more than 2,000 people in total, including at least 1,922 IS fighters.

"Air strikes by the coalition early on Friday on the village of Birmahle in Aleppo province killed 52 civilians," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP news agency.

Seven children were killed, and 13 people were still unaccounted for, the group said.

The village lies close to a front line where Islamic State fighters have been clashing with Kurdish and other rival rebel factions.

IS, a jihadist group seeking to establish a caliphate in Iraq and northern Syria, controls swathes of territory on both sides of the border.

It has clashed with other factions fighting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

The US expanded its air strike campaign against IS last September.

Countries that have carried out raids in Syria also include Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.