DAMASCUS, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of three civilians were killed Saturday by a U.S.-led airstrike on the Islamic State (IS)-held area in eastern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.
The airstrike targeted a desert area in the al-Tayaneh area in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour province, said the report.
The airstrike is the latest in a string bombings targeting the last IS redoubt in the eastern Euphrates River region.
Earlier in the day, a war monitor reported that negotiations are underway in eastern Syria between the U.S.-led forces and the IS group for the latter's withdrawal from its last redoubt.
Relative calm is prevailing eastern Syria as the negotiation for the withdrawal of the IS from the last four sq km it controls in the eastern Euphrates River is ongoing, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The UK-based watchdog group said the destination of the IS militants and their families is still unknown amid ongoing negotiations.
It said the U.S.-led coalition struck positions of the IS in the eastern Euphrates to practice more pressure on the group.
After losing the four sq km, the IS will still be in control of 4,000 sq km in the desert in eastern Syria.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been on a crushing offensive to root out the IS from the eastern Euphrates region since last September.
The SDF managed, with the help of the U.S., to defeat the IS in much of the areas it had controlled in the eastern Euphrates area.
The Observatory 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.
