Deadliest Month for Syria Civilians in US-Led Strikes

US-led air strikes on Syria killed a total of 225 civilians over the past month, a monitor said on Tuesday, the highest 30-day toll since the campaign began in 2014. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilian dead between April 23 and May 23 included 44 children and 36 women.

The US-led air campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria began on September 23, 2014. 

"The past month of operations is the highest civilian toll since the coalition began bombing Syria," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. 

"There has been a very big escalation."

The past month's deaths brought the overall civilian toll from the coalition campaign to 1,481, among them 319 children, the Britain-based monitoring group said. 

The US military said in May that coalition air strikes in Syria and Iraq had "unintentionally" killed 352 civilians since operations against IS began. 

The strikes between April 23 and May 23 also killed 122 IS jihadists and eight fighters loyal to the Syrian government, the Observatory said.