Overnight US-led strikes hit multiple Syrian targets

Raqqa and Aleppo sites associated with Islamic State attacked; no report on casualties

By AFP 29 September 2014, 11:08 am

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File: An EA-6B Prowler launching from the American aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) supporting strike, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in Syria, September 26, 2014. (AFP Photo/Handout/US Navy)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fresh US-led strikes hit Islamic State group targets in Syria overnight, both in its Raqqa province stronghold and in Aleppo province further west, a monitoring group said on Monday.

The coalition strikes hit jihadist targets outside Raqqa city, the de facto headquarters of IS in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

They also hit targets around the town of Minbej, east of second city Aleppo, that reportedly included IS-controlled grain silos, said the Britain-based group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

The coalition already hit IS targets around Minbej on Saturday.

There was no immediate word on any casualties in the latest strikes, which came after the coalition struck the entrance of the country’s main gas plant in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor in an apparent warning to IS militants to abandon the facility.

The plant is the largest in Syria and feeds a key power station in regime-held Homs province.

If it stopped functioning, several provinces, including Deir Ezzor, would be without electricity, the Observatory said.

US warplanes began strikes against jihadist targets in Syria last Tuesday with the support of Arab allies, expanding an air campaign that Washington began in Iraq on August 8.