The death toll from a series of Syrian government airstrikes on the Islamic State group’s stronghold in northeastern Syria has risen to at least 95, making it one of the deadliest attacks on the city of Raqqa in the past three years.
Some of the airstrikes Tuesday struck a popular market near a museum and an industrial neighbourhood, causing many civilian casualties.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights raised its death toll Wednesday to 95. Its director, Rami Abdurrahman, said they include 52 civilians whose names the group was able to document. They include three women and four children, he said. At least 120 others were wounded in the strikes, according to the group.
Other activists, including the Local Coordination Committees and a Raqqa-based collective called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered, estimated more than 100 people had been killed. It was not clear how many militants were among those killed.
The Associated Press could not independently confirm the death toll one of the worst single-day tolls in the city, which is completely under the control of the Islamic State group.
The Syrian government as well as the U.S.-led coalition frequently bomb Islamic State group targets in Raqqa, but it was not immediately clear what prompted Tuesday’s unusually intense attacks.