Locals in eastern Syria report that US-led coalition airstrikes against Baghouz, the so-called “last village” of ISIS, killed at least eight civilians, all of them from the same family. The slain were reported as three women and five children.



Heavy US airstrikes against populated areas have been a recurring source of civilian deaths in this last ISIS enclave in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports over 400 civilians slain since September in this fight, mostly in airstrikes.



Kurdish officials played up the progress in and around Baghouz, which they claimed to have captured last week, but are still fighting over. Now they claim ISIS controls only four square kilometers in all of Syria, a line from Baghouz to the Iraqi border.



This proximity to the Iraq border has gotten Iraqi forces involved in some of this fighting, firing artillery at the ISIS forces to keep them away from the border. Iraq has built up its forces on the border to keep ISIS from crossing over.





Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz