Syrian strikes kill 36 in IS-held city — activists

BEIRUT — Syrian government warplanes carried out a series of air strikes Tuesday on the de-facto capital of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group, killing at least 36 people, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some of the air raids struck a popular market near a museum and an industrial neighbourhood in the city of Raqqa along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria.

It put the death toll at 36. The local coordination committees said the strikes killed at least 50 people. Another Raqqa-based collective called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said it documented over 70 deaths. Such discrepancies are normal in the immediate aftermath of attacks in Syria.

A militant video posted online showed medics bundle four bloody bodies into the back of an ambulance amid shouts of "God is Great". In the background, a fire truck tries to douse several burning cars as gray smoke rises into the sky.

The video appeared genuine and corresponded to Associated Press reporting on the strikes.

The Syrian government as well as the US-led coalition frequently bomb IS targets in Raqqa. It was not immediately clear what prompted Tuesday's unusually intense strikes.

An activist who uses the name Abu Ibrahim Al Raqqawi said nine airstrikes took place within half an hour. All but one struck civilian neighbourhoods in the centre of the city, he said, with one knocking off the minaret of a mosque.

"This is one of the ugliest regime massacres in Raqqa to date," said the Moscow-based activist, who oversees Raqqa Is Being Silently Slaughtered network.

In Iraq, the IS blew up Al Nasir convent in the northern city of Mosul, which has been controlled by the militants since June. Its resident nuns fled the city along with most of Mosul's remaining Christians when militants overran the city.

IS has frequently targeted Christians by bombing their churches and killing clergymen, as well as religious minorities across Iraq's north.