Damascus - XINHUA
At least five civilians were killed by the strikes of the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition in northern and eastern Syria on Saturday, a monitoring group reported.
The strikes of the U.S. coalition killed three people, including a teenager in the village of Kbaibeh in the countryside of the city of Shadadi in northern province of Hasaka, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It noted that the targeted area contains a number of oil plants.
In the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, two men were killed and three others wounded when the U.S. strikes targeted two areas near the village of Khusham, said the Observatory.
Separately, the clashes continued between the Islamic State (IS) and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the predominantly Kurdish city of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobane, the Observatory said, adding that eight IS fighters were killed in an ambush by the YPG near the municipal building in the city.
The UK-based watchdog group, which relies on a network of activists on ground, said the YPG fighters managed to wrest back control over a radio station building in the western countryside of Ayn al-Arab, adding that the war jets of the U.S.-led coalition are currently flying over the city.
Meanwhile, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said a leader in the IS called Muhammad al-Jassem was killed by the U.S. raids on the countryside of Ayn al-Arab, without spelling no further details.
The IS unleashed its wide-scale offensive against Ayn al-Arab, bordering Turkey, on Sept. 15 in a bid to capture the city, which, if succeeded, would enable the IS to link its self-declared capital of al-Raqqa province with Ayn al-Arab and stretch its territory to areas bordering Turkey.
Syrian government officials and Kurdish activists have accused Turkey of aiding the IS in capturing the city so as to eliminate the Kurdish presence in the area and impose a long-desired buffer area protected by a no-fly zone in northern Syria.
The IS has captured more than 300 villages around the city and managed to storm it after forcing over 160,000 people to flee toward neighboring Turkey.