DHAKA: US-led air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria have killed more than 1,600 people, mainly extremists, since they began five months ago.

A monitor said on Monday, reports The Straits Times.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said almost all of those killed were militants from IS and Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front, though it also documented the deaths of 62 civilians.

The Britain-based monitor said the strikes that began on September 23 had killed 1,465 members of IS, most of them non-Syrians.

Another 73 fighters from Al-Nusra Front were killed, along with a man from a rebel group being held prisoner by IS in the group’s de facto capital Raqa.

BDST: 1745 HRS, FEB 23, 2015