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DAMASCUS, Feb. 12-- A total of 70 civilians were killed and wounded Tuesday by a U.S.-led airstrike in eastern Syria, state TV reported. The airstrikes targeted a camp for displaced people in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour. The airstrikes have intensified recently on Islamic State (IS)-held areas in the eastern Euphrates river region. On Saturday, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) started on the final stage of attacks against the IS in the eastern Euphrates river region in eastern Syria. Following the evacuation of over 20,000 civilians from the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, the SDF started on Saturday night the operation against the remaining IS-held pocket in the eastern Euphrates region, according to Mustafa Balli, the head of the SDF media office. Balli said that the battle aims to eliminate the last IS militants in the town of Baghouz. After losing the four sq km, the IS will still control 4,000 sq km in the Syrian desert in eastern Syria. The U.S.-backed SDF has been on a crushing offensive to root out IS from the eastern Euphrates region since last September. The SDF managed, with the help of the U.S., to defeat IS in much of the areas it had controlled in the eastern Euphrates area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said over 37,000 civilians, including tens of IS militants, have fled the last IS-held pocket to areas controlled by the SDF in the eastern Euphrates area since last December. | 
