Russian air strikes kill 42 in Daesh-held Raqqa, Syria

Top Stories

UAE announces 2-month grace period for residence visa violators

UAE announces fee refund for tax service charges from August 1

Paid parking in Dubai: Residents face up to Dh4,000 extra yearly costs when new rates kick in

Russian air strikes kill 42 in Daesh-held Raqqa, Syria

A frame grab taken from a footage released by Russia's Defence Ministry shows what Russia says is an explosion after air strikes carried out by the Russian air force on a bridge under militants' control near Raqqa, Syria.

Beirut - Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included 27 civilians.

By Reuters


Published: Fri 6 Nov 2015, 3:19 PM

Last updated: Fri 6 Nov 2015, 5:24 PM

Air strikes by Russian warplanes on the Daesh-held Syrian city of Raqqa killed 42 people earlier this week, including 27 civilians, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.
Fifteen Daesh fighters made up the remainder of the death toll, the Britain-based Observatory said, after a series of strikes on Tuesday that hit the group's Syrian stronghold.
The bombings add to a civilian death toll from Russian strikes, which the Syrian Network for Human Rights, another monitoring group, said on Monday stood at 254 people killed in just over a month.
It was also a rare heavy Russian bombardment targeting Daesh rather than other insurgent groups.
Russia's air force intervened in Syria's four-year civil war on September 30 on the side of President Bashar Al Assad, launching a campaign it said targeted Daesh.
The United States says Russian raids have mostly hit other Syrian insurgents, including foreign-backed and more moderate groups.
The Russian intervention has marked a new phase in the war, intensifying fighting in the country's west and northwest between rebels and pro-government forces backed also by Iranian troops and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.
Russian strikes have hit Daesh-held areas further east, but have been mostly concentrated in the west.
Its air force said on Tuesday it had flown 1,631 sorties and struck 2,084 militant targets since the start of the campaign.
More than 120,000 people have been driven from their homes since Moscow's bombing campaign started, the United Nations says. The war has killed an estimated 250,000 people and driven more than 11 million from their homes.