U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles are part of a large coalition strike package that was the first to strike Islamic State targets in Syria. On May 3, 2015, a human rights observer group reported U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed more than 50 civilians in a village northeast of Aleppo, but U.S. Central Command said it had no evidence of civilian casualties. File Photo by Matthew Bruch/U.S. Air Force | License Photo

ALEPPO, Syria, May 3 (UPI) -- The U.S.-led coalition bombing Islamic State forces in Syria killed over 50 civilians in airstrikes northeast of Aleppo on Friday, according to a human rights monitoring group.

At least 52 people from six different families, including seven children and nine women, died when coalition bombs struck the village of Ber Mahli, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports. Another 13 were missing.


SOHR condemned the attacks and called on coalition countries in the Syrian theater of Operation Inherent Resolve -- which since its commencement last fall has included efforts by Bahrain, Canada, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States -- to "refer who committed this massacre to the courts."

A U.S. Central Command spokesman was quoted by the BBC as saying CENTCOM had "no information to corroborate allegations that coalition airstrikes resulted in civilian casualties," but he said it was investigating.

A battle damage report posted to CENTCOM's website on May 1 notes four airstrikes near Al Hasakah, one near Dayr Az Zawr and six near Kobani, all of which targeted IS tactical units, fighting positions and vehicles.

Operation Inherent Resolve began last summer, targeting IS forces that seized huge portions of territory in Syria and Iraq.

SOHR, which gathers information from a variety of sources on the ground in Syria, reported in January that 504 Syrian regime airstrikes had killed 127 civilians and wounded at least 500 others in a 96-hour period.

Late last month, SOHR said at least 60 civilians were killed and wounded by a Syrian government bombardment of Darkoush, a town in Idlib province, where the Syrian army has suffered a series of recent setbacks from an offensive by allied Islamist factions, including al-Qaida's Nusra Front.

The previous November, the monitoring group reported airstrikes in Syria by the U.S.-led coalition, since beginning in September, had killed 785 Islamic State fighters, 72 al-Qaida-backed Nusra Front militants and 52 civilians.