At least 21 civilians have been killed in air strikes by US-led coalition planes against areas in Syria held by the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), a monitoring group said.In Monday's air strikes on the northernSyrian town of Manbij, 15 civilians were killed in the Hazawneh neighbourhood of the city, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Six civilians, including two brothers as well as a father and two of his children,were also killed in a strike on the nearby village of Tokhar, the group said.There was no immediate comment fromthe coalition, the Associated Press reported.The new death toll puts the total number of civilians killed by coalition strikes on Manbij since May 31 at 104,according to the observatory. The figure includes 29 children and 16 women. The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF),an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fightersbacked by the US, launchedan offensiveagainst ISIL to retake the city of Manbij late last month. They have besieged the town and areadvancingto the city centre under the cover of air strikes by the US-led international coalition. ISIL has held the city since 2014, the year that the armed group seized controlof large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared its "caliphate".AleppoAlso on Monday, Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said a driver who works for the agency in Syria was killed after suffering a shrapnel wound in the northern city of Aleppo.Gunness said Yaser Mahmoud Shuaeeb, a 45-year-old father of six children, died on Sunday.Aleppo has witnessed some of the worstfighting in Syria over the past months. On Sunday, government forces besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of the contested city.
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