AT least 33 people were killed in a U.S.-led coalition strike on a school used as a center for displaced people near a jihadist-held Syrian town, a monitor said yesterday.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike south of Al-Mansoura, a town held by the Islamic State group in the northern province of Raqa, “took place in the early hours of Tuesday.”

    Top officials from the 68-nation alliance fighting IS are set to meet in Washington to hear more about U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to destroy the jihadists’ remaining strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

    The U.S.-led coalition has been bombing IS since 2014 and is now backing a major offensive to defeat the group in Raqa city, the Syrian heart of the group’s so-called “Islamic caliphate.”

    The school-turned-shelter lies about 30 kilometers west of Raqa.

    “We can now confirm that 33 people were killed, and they were displaced civilians from Raqa, Aleppo and Homs,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

    “They’re still pulling bodies out of the rubble until now. Only two people were pulled out alive,” Abdel Rahman said.

    The Britain-based monitor — which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information — says it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.

    “Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,” an activist group that publishes news from IS-held territory in Syria, also reported the strike.

    “The school that was targeted hosts nearly 50 displaced families,” it said.

    Syrian state news agency SANA also reported the air raid, accusing the U.S.-led coalition of inflicting “dozens” of casualties and almost completely destroying the school site.

    (SD-Agencies)