Coalition strikes kill 42 in Daesh's Syria holdout – monitor

Coalition missile strikes have killed 42 people including 13 civilians in what remains of Daesh's last holdout in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in Syria, a war monitor said on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said short-range missiles late on Friday hit homes on farmland near the village of Baghouz, killing 42 people.

Among them were 13 civilians, the Britain-based monitor said.

They included seven Syrians linked to Daesh including three children from the same family, as well as six Iraqi non-combatants, it said.

The coalition was not immediately available for comment, but has in the past said it does everything to avoid targeting civilians.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the targeted area was a launchpad for militants' counterattacks. 

Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, declaring a "caliphate", but it has since lost almost all of its territory to various offensives.

But it maintains a presence in Syria's vast Badia desert.

Syria's civil war has killed 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests.