DAMASCUS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 civilians were killed on Friday by US-led airstrikes on an Islamic State (IS)-held area in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state news agency SANA reported.

Women and children were among those killed by the airstrikes, which targeted the town of Baghus, one of the last two towns still controlled by the IS in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour.

The attack is the latest in a series of air bombardment targeting the last IS-held pocket on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in eastern Syria. 

The US-led coalition has been backing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in its push to dislodge IS militants from their last redoubt in the eastern Euphrates region.

Earlier in the day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF is still fighting to push the remaining IS fighters to surrender in the eastern Euphrates.

The London-based watchdog said the US-led warplanes were spotted flying over the last IS-held pocket in the eastern Euphrates on Friday.

The IS residuals are trying to escape their besieged pocket after the SDF, with the help of the US-led coalition, cornered them in a 15-square-km strip in the eastern Euphrates region, it added.