Air strikes kill 25 civilians in Raqqa, ISIL’s Syria stronghold

People walk past a building that was reportedly targeted by the US-led coalition, in the ISIL controlled Syrian city of Raqqa in 2014. An airstrike 21 June 2016 killed 25 people. AFP PHOTO/RMC/STR / AFP PHOTO / Raqa Media Center / STRShow less

Beirut // At least 25 civilians were killed after warplanes bombed ISIL’s de facto Syrian capital Raqqa.

The strikes came as twin offensives aimed at severing the extremist’s supply line from the Turkish border to Raqqa appear to have stalled as ISIL mounts a fierce defence using suicide bombers.

Six children were among the 25 civilians killed in bombing raids on Tuesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“Dozens more were wounded, some of them critically,” said the monitor, adding they were likely carried out by regime ally Russia.

The Syrian government, Russia and a US-led coalition have all carried out air strikes against ISIL in Raqqa.

The Observatory said fresh raids, apparently by the coalition, also hit the city on Wednesday.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently– an anti-ISIL activist group which gathers news on atrocities in the city – posted photos of what it said were the aftermath of Tuesday’s strikes.

They show a concrete balcony hanging off the damaged facade of a residential building as a large fire engulfs a white minivan.

The group has accused ISIL of preventing civilians from leaving the city in order to use them as human shields.

Abu Mohammad, an activist from the groyp, said the wounded were struggling to get proper medical treatment as ISIL has recruited most doctors in the city to treat its own fighters.

Raqqa city was seized by ISIL in early 2014 and regime forces were expelled from the entire province that year.

Backed by Russian warplanes, government forces re-entered the province this month as part of an offensive to retake Tabqa, a key town on ISIL’s supply route from Turkey to Raqqa.

But after advancing to within seven kilometres of Tabqa airbase, they were driven back late on Monday in an extremist attack that killed 40 loyalists.

A tribal militant who had fought alongside government forces recounted how the army had first been slowed down by mines planted by ISIL.

“Then Daesh used a huge number of rockets and other explosives to attack the army,” which was forced to withdraw from its main outposts, he said.

Pro-government website Al Masdar said the ISIL offensive had led to a “disastrous turn of events” and “a disorganised retreat that left behind weapons and several soldiers”.

Washington-based analyst Fabrice Balanche said the pullback could be attributed to a lack of “elite forces” engaged in the battle.

“At the first suicide attacks, they retreated,” he said. “The Syrian forces were spread too thin to be defendable.”

Further west in the adjacent province of Aleppo, another assault aimed at blocking ISIL supplies has stalled.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces encircled the town of Manbij on June 10 but have since faced a barrage of ISIL suicide attacks.

Abu Ibrahim, an SDF field commander stationed near Manbij, said ISIL attacked two villages east of the town on Wednesday morning.

“They used a car bomb and tried to break through our lines of defence, but the SDF was able to block the attack,” he said.

Coalition warplanes “weren’t leaving the sky” and had quickly responded to the SDF’s call for help, he added.

*Agence France-Presse