Syrian government air strikes kill 95, say monitors

At least 120 were wounded in 10 air strikes on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa

Syrian government airstrikes on a market, an industrial area and other parts of the Islamic State-controlled city of Raqqa have killed at least 95 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.

At least 120 people were wounded in 10 strikes on the northern city, which the militant group has declared as its capital, according to SOHR.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Observatory, said 10 war planes struck at least 10 times in Raqqa, a stronghold of IS.

“The majority of the strikes were in the eastern part of the city,” Mr Abdulrahman said, quoting residents and activists in the city.

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Another group, called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered, put the death toll at 115 and posted an appeal on its Facebook page from Raqqa’s national hospital seeking blood donations.

Islamic State (IS), which has seized wide expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria, drove the last Syrian government forces out of Raqqa province in late August. Its fighters seized an air base then, capturing and later executing scores of Syrian soldiers.

The Syrian government and the US-led coalition against the IS often target the city. The al-Qaeda breakaway group has enforced strict restrictions on residents in areas straddling the Syria-Iraq border it controls. It has banned smoking and alcohol and forced women to cover themselves in baggy cloaks and killed adulterers.

IS stoned two men to death in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor after claiming they were gay, SOHR reported yesterday.

One of the men was 20 years old and IS said his phone contained a video showing him “practising indecent acts with males”, SOHR said. No details were given on the second man.

Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad that spiralled into a civil war and fostered the rise of Islamic militant groups including Islamic State. More than 190,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Agencies