CAIRO — Iraq on Tuesday condemned air strikes targeting forces fighting Daesh (the so-called IS) in Iraq or Syria after Syrian state media said that US-led coalition aircraft had bombed a Syrian army position near the Iraqi border, causing deaths and injuries.

In a statement, Iraq's Foreign Ministry said that it "expresses rejection and condemnation of any air operations targeting forces in areas where they are fighting ISIS (daesh), whether in Iraq or Syria or any other area where there is a battlefield against this enemy that threatens humanity."

The statement added that the ministry reiterates its call for all countries to stand together to face these "extremist groups," and it sees the necessity for an international coalition to coordinate regularly and accurately with the forces fighting these groups as well as to offer help and support.

Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, a grouping of mostly Iran-backed Shiite paramilitaries, also said on Monday a US air strike on the Iraqi border with Syria killed 22 of its members and wounded 12 others.

However, an Iraqi military statement later said no Popular Mobilization Forces or other Iraqi troops tasked with securing the Iraqi-Syrian border had been hit by the air strike, and it had taken place inside Syria.

The US military denied it was responsible.

The bombing raid hit Al-Hari, a town controlled by regional militias fighting in Syria's complex seven-year war alongside President Bashar Al-Assad's forces.

"We have reasons to believe that it was an Israeli strike," a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Monday.

The raid slammed into a regime-controlled position in the border town and left at least 52 fighters dead, according to a Britain-based monitor.

Among them were fighters from Iraq's powerful Hashed Al-Shaabi military alliance, some of whom have crossed into Syria to fight against IS.

The bodies of three Iraqi fighters killed in the raid were returned to their hometowns for burial, said AFP's correspondent in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 30 Iraqi forces were among the dead in Al-Hari, as well as 16 Syrian forces and six unidentified fighters.

The attack was first reported by Syrian state media, which cited a military source accusing the coalition of bombing one of its positions in Al-Hari.

It said several people were killed and wounded but did not give a specific number or their nationalities.

A military source in Syria's Deir Ezzor province where the targeted area lies later said coalition warplanes hit "joint Iraqi-Syrian positions in Al-Hari".

The coalition's press office said it had received reports of a strike in the area that had killed and wounded Iraqi fighters, but denied it was involved.

"There have been no strikes by US or coalition forces in that area," it said in an email.

Al-Hari lies on the western side, close to the river and the de-confliction line.

The buffer has largely been successful in keeping the two offensives apart, but there have been exceptions.

The deadliest incident was in February, when US-led coalition air strikes killed at least 100 pro-regime fighters in Deir Ezzor province, including Russians.

"The strike on Al-Hari produced the highest death toll for regime forces since the February incident," Observatory head Abdel Rahman said.

Syria's conflict began in 2011 with protests against Assad, but then spiralled into a full-blown war that has drawn in world powers and given rise to jihadists like IS.

The strike on Al-Hari came a day after the US-backed SDF announced it had ousted IS from Dashisha, a village to the north in Syria's Hasakeh province.

The village had been one of the last IS-controlled areas in a corridor linking Syria with Iraq.

"For the first time in four years, Dashisha, a notorious transit town for weapons, fighters and suicide bombers between Iraq and Syria, is no longer controlled by ISIS (IS) terrorists," said Brett McGurk, the US president's special envoy for the war against IS. — Agencies