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DAMASCUS, Nov. 14-- At least 20 Islamic State (IS) militants have been killed over the past 24 hours as a result of U.S.-led airstrikes on IS-held areas in eastern Syria, a war monitor group reported on Wednesday. The IS militants were killed as the U.S.-led coalition has been pounding the IS-held areas in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour province as a prelude to a campaign to dislodge IS from its last strongholds in eastern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is a Kurdish-led group, is bracing to launch a second wave of attacks against IS in the last IS-held pocket on the eastern bank of Euphrates River near Iraq. The airstrikes have recently intensified as the Kurdish-led group's attack on IS seems imminent after a failing attempt that has dragged on since Sept. 10. In the process, civilian casualties have fallen, with tens of civilians reportedly killed earlier this week by the U.S.-led strikes. The Syrian government has for long questioned the intentions of the U.S.-led coalition as the area in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour is a strategic one due to its proximity to the Iraqi border and the oil-rich fields. Earlier on Wednesday, Syria's state news agency SANA said the U.S.-led warplanes are targeting residential areas in eastern Deir al-Zour with cluster bombs and white phosphorus. The Syrian Foreign Ministry renewed in a statement Saturday calling on the UN to form "an independent international mechanism" to investigate into the "crimes of the Washington coalition" and punish the perpetrators. | 
