13 civilians, 5 jihadists killed in air strikes on IS Syria bastion

Heavy air strikes throughout the night on the Islamic State group’s de facto Syria capital Raqa killed at least 13 civilians and five jihadists, a monitoring group said today. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had no immediate word on whether the strikes were carried out by the Damascus regime, its ally Moscow or the US-led coalition battling IS.

“Raqa has not been targeted by air raids of this intensity for several weeks,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

“These raids continued throughout the night and into the morning.”