Air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria have killed 2,079 people, including 66 civilians, since the start of the aerial campaign against Islamic State militants last September, a group monitoring the war said yesterday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a majority of the deaths, some 1,922, were Islamic State fighters.

The hardline group has seized tracts of territory in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, where it has also been targeted by US-led forces since last July.

Ten of the civilians killed were children and six were women, the Observatory said. It said 90 members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front were also killed in the air strikes, which started on September 23.

The US has said it takes reports of civilian casualties seriously and says it has a process to investigate each allegation.

Washington justified its action in Syria under Article 51 of the UN Charter, which covers an individual or collective right to self-defence against armed attack.

Around 220,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict, which is now in its fourth year, the UN has said.