Coalition air raid kills at least 50 civilians in Syria

Air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria killed more than 50 civilians, activists said, in what they believe to be the deadliest non-combatant toll since the international force began its campaign against jihadi militants in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said entire families were killed in Friday's devastating air raid on Birmahali, a town in northern Syria's Aleppo province. Many more were wounded and in critical condition, the group said.

The coalition, made up of western and Arab countries, has made no comment on the alleged strike. The Financial Times was unable to independently verify activists reports of the incident, which happened on Friday.

Before Friday, activists counted over 60 dead from coalition strikes, meaning that if confirmed, the number of civilians killed has now almost doubled.

"The excuse for the strike was information of an Isis presence, that is the information they received," said an activist known by his alias Thaer al-Khalidiya. He said there were no official Isis bases in the town. "The number of dead we have verified already has almost reached 60 people, the biggest number of civilians killed in a coalition strike."

Activists supporting the four year revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad say US-led strikes are turning people against the western-backed rebels and the coalition. They say it drives many closer to the group the coalition is fighting, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis).

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"When they first hit our house, my cousin and some of the children were killed. Some of them were only four years old, what was their crime?" said one wounded man interviewed in the video, which was posted on YouTube. "Why did this happen? Just to please Obama and the Saudi king?"

Syrian rebels, many of whom the coalition wants to train as allies on the ground, are frustrated that while the coalition runs its anti-Isis campaign, the government has continued its daily air raids. They say this makes it much harder for them to partner with the US-led force.

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