Syria: Scores of civilians killed in US-led airstrikes

 At least 85 civilians were killed on Tuesday in airstrikes by U.S.-led coalition planes in the Daesh-held town of Manbij in northern Syria, according to local sources.

The airstrikes targeted a group of civilians trying to flee clashes in Tukhar village in Manbij, one of the sources told Anadolu Agency, requesting anonymity due to security concerns.

“Whole families have been killed in the attack,” said the source, adding that the airstrikes injured at least 100 people.

In June, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters, backed by U.S.-led coalition planes, launched an offensive to retake Manbij from Daesh.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests — which erupted as part of the “Arab Spring” uprisings — with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.