Suspected coalition raids kill 14 civilians in north Syria: Monitor

Air strikes thought to have been carried out by a US-led coalition on Thursday killed 14 civilians, including six children, in a northern Syrian village held by the Islamic State group, a monitor told AFP.

"The raids hit the village of Al-Matab after midnight and were likely carried out by the coalition," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 

The coalition is backing an offensive against IS's de facto capital of Raqqa, about 55km northwest of Al-Matab.

A US official said on Wednesday that the United States had sent a Marine Corps artillery battery into Syria to help defeat IS.

The official said troops from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit had deployed a battery of 155mm Howitzers to an outpost in Syria.

The Marines "are ready to conduct their mission" to support the offensive on Raqqa, the official told AFP, confirming a report in the Washington Post.

The move marks a significant step for conventional US forces in Syria. 

Currently, the United States has limited its ground troops to about 500 special operations fighters whose job has been to train and assist the SDF, a local Arab-Kurdish alliance fighting IS.

According to the Post, the artillery deployment had been in the works "for some time" and was not part of President Donald Trump's demand for a new plan to increase the pace of the anti-IS war.

The artillery will allow the Marines to help support the SDF offensive, which has been gradually closing in on Raqqa since last fall.   

The Pentagon this week announced that it had also sent extra troops into Manbij to prevent competing factions fighting each other in the former IS stronghold. 

US officials estimate there to be up to 4,000 militants in Raqqa, a city of about 300,000 residents.