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Agence France-Presse

Dozens of civilians have died in two days of intense US-led strikes on Raqqa, a monitor said on Tuesday, as fighting to retake the Syrian city from jihadists nears its densely populated centre.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have captured just under 60 per cent of Raqqa, monitors say, leaving jihadists from Islamic State in control of about 10 sq km in the heart of the city.
But as clashes approach central Raqqa, monitors and activists have reported scores killed in intensifying coalition bombardment of the city.
On Monday, US-led air strikes killed at least 42 civilians in several neighbourhoods in Raqqa under IS control, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
Nineteen children and 12 women were among the dead.
That takes to 167 the number of civilians killed in coalition strikes since August 14, after the Observatory said at least 27 were killed on Sunday.
“The tolls are high because the air strikes are hitting neighbourhoods in the city centre that are densely packed with civilians,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“There are buildings full of civilians who are trying to get away from the front lines.”
The SDF’s Arab and Kurdish fighters broke into Raqqa in early June after spending months chipping away at IS-held territory in the surrounding province.
The US-led coalition, which operates in both Syria and neighbouring Iraq, says it takes all possible measures to avoid civilian casualties.
Earlier this month it acknowledged the deaths of 624 civilians in its strikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014, but rights groups say the number is much higher.

Asked about the escalating civilian tolls in recent days, SDF spokesman Talal Sello told AFP his forces were striving to avoid casualties.
“One of the major reasons for the slow progress in the Raqqa fight is the preserving of civilian lives and avoiding massive losses among them,” Sello said.
He blamed IS for using civilians as “human shields”.
“We have opened up safe routes for civilians to cross securely towards areas controlled by our forces, who are rescuing civilians almost daily and transferring them to safe places.”
Tens of thousands of people have fled Raqqa city, with the United Nations estimating up to 25,000 civilians remained trapped inside with dwindling food and fuel supplies.

The UN’s humanitarian point man for Syria, Jan Egeland, has said IS-held territory in Raqqa city is now “the worst place” in the war-torn country.
Civilians, including women and children, must dodge sniper fire, IS-laid mines, and coalition bombardment to make it out of the city alive.
Activist collective Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) also reported heavy raids in recent days.
It said those killed since Sunday included entire families and people displaced to Raqqa from other parts of Syria.
RBSS published gruesome photos of dust-covered toddlers who had reportedly died in the bombardment.
Raqqa civilians forced to risk their lives for fresh water in city ‘dying of thirst’
More than 330,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
After IS seized Raqqa in 2014, the city became synonymous with the group’s most brutal practices, including beheadings and public executions.
It served as the jihadist faction’s de facto capital in Syria, alongside its twin pivot Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.
In battle for Raqqa, cool heads must prevail
A US-backed offensive ousted IS from Mosul in July and is now chasing the militants in Tal Afar, the group’s last major bastion in northern Iraq.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with top Iraqi officials on keeping the pressure up on IS.
“ISIS’s days are certainly numbered, but it’s not over yet and it’s not going to be over any time soon,” he said, using an alternative acronym for IS.


Children among dead as US-led strikes pound Raqqa

A sniper of the Syrian Democratic Forces aims his weapon during the fighting with Islamic State's fighters in the old city of Raqqa, Syria. Photo: Reuters

Smoke rises after an air strike during fighting between members of the Syrian Democratic Forces and Islamic State militants in Raqqa, Syria, August 20, 2017. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces talks to his comrade as he hides from Islamic State's sniper in the old city of Raqqa, Syria, August 19, 2017. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Indonesian family finds nightmare in Raqqa where women were expected to be married off to IS fighters

An Indonesian family who escaped from the Islamic State group in Raqqa gather inside their tent at a refugee camp, in Ain Issa. Photo: AP

In this picture taken on Monday, July 24, 2017, Nurshardrina Khairadhinia, 19, from Indonesia, the cousin of a young man suspected of Islamic State membership, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, inside their tent at a refugee camp, in Ain Issa, Syria. At the age of 17, lured by what she had read online, she told her parents, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins they should all move to Syria to join the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this picture taken on Friday, July 21, 2017, a Kurdish soldier stands guard next to an Indonesian man suspected of Islamic State membership in Kobani, Syria. The man's family is among thousands from Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East who chased the dream of a new Islamic society advertised by IS in slickly produced propaganda videos, online blogs and other social media. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A still image taken from a video posted to a social media website by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq News Agency, on July 15, 2017, shows a man appearing to be an Islamic State militant firing a weapon, said to be in Raqqa, Syria. Social Media Website via Reuters TV ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT HAS BEEN CHECKED BY REUTERS' SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM AND REVIEWED BY A SENIOR EDITOR. REUTERS IS CONFIDENT THE EVENTS PORTRAYED ARE GENUINE. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A fighter of Christian Syriac militia that battles the Islamic State group under the banner of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, burns an IS flag on the front line on the western side of Raqqa, northeast Syria, Monday, July 17, 2017. U.S.-backed Syrian fighters fought Islamic State militants in the heart of Raqqa, the extremists' self-styled capital, as scores of civilians fled areas controlled by the group. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

FILE - In this undated file photo released online in the summer of 2014 on a militant social media account, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy on a road leading to Iraq, in Raqqa, Syria. The Islamic State group’s mashup of local insurgency and digitally-connected global jihadis gives the group staying power and a launchpad for its future. The impending loss of Mosul and Raqqa will still urban heart of its self-proclaimed Caliphate, but the extremist organization has built-in plans to endure, a blueprint for supporters and the flexibility to bide its time away from airstrikes. (Militant photo via AP, File)

Smoke rises from Raqqa, Syria July 28, 2017.REUTERS/ Rodi Said

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