US-led coalition warplanes destroy mosque in Syria

A mosque in Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor province held by Daesh and YPG/PKK terrorist groups was destroyed by U.S.-led coalition warplanes Friday, local sources said.

Reliable sources told Anadolu Agency that immediately after Friday prayers, U.S.-led coalition aircraft had struck a mosque in Deir ez-Zor's Al-Susah district.

Strikes on the village of Sousa killed 18 civilians including seven children late Thursday and 14 more civilians on Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Dozens were wounded and many remained under the rubble in the village in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

A coalition spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Within the last two days alone, 43 civilians have been killed -- including two children -- by repeated coalition airstrikes, local sources say.

With U.S. and French support, the YPG/PKK terrorist group recently launched an offensive against Deir ez-Zor's city of Hajin with a view to retaking it from Daesh.

The number of Daesh terrorists now in Hajin is estimated at some 1,000 out of an estimated 2,500 throughout the entire Deir ez-Zor province.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.