95 said killed in Syrian regime strikes on IS ‘capital’

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 52 of those slain in Raqqa are civilians

By AFP 26 November 2014, 1:33 pm

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Illustrative: Smoke and fire following a reported airstrike by Syrian government forces in the Islamic State-controlled Syrian city of Raqqa, on November 25, 2014. (AFP Photo/RMC/STR)

At least 95 people were killed in Syrian regime airstrikes on the Islamic State group’s self-proclaimed capital Raqqa on Tuesday, a monitoring group said in a new toll.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 52 of the dead were civilians, but it had no word Wednesday on whether the others were jihadists or also civilians.

“Some of the strikes hit near to Islamic State posts,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Observatory.

Raqqa was the first provincial capital in Syria to fall from regime control, and was later overrun by IS which has used it as the capital of its so-called “caliphate.”

Raqqa has also been the target of repeated airstrikes by the US-led coalition fighting against the jihadists.