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Several Syrian regime airstrikes on the city of Raqa, the self-proclaimed capital of extremist group Islamic State (IS), on Tuesday caused the death of 63 people, over half of whom were civilians. The airstrikes were the deadliest attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s air force on the city since it was seized by the IS last year.
“Among the 63 killed were at least 36 civilians. There were also 20 unidentified victims who could be civilians or jihadists, as well as the disfigured remains of at least seven other people”, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
He added that previously, “most of the casualties were caused by two consecutive air strikes” on Raqa’s main industrial region.
“The first strike came, residents rushed to rescue the wounded, and then the second raid took place”, Rahman, the Observatory’s director, said.
Amateur video by activists in Raqa shows several bodies on the street near the apparent bombing site, as ambulances rush to the scene. Aid workers wearing red overalls bearing the Red Crescent symbol were also seen moving corpses in body bags.
Activists from the city have called the raids a “massacre”.
The IS had taken over Raqa, the only provincial capital to fall from regime control since 2011, and turned it into its citadel. Most civil society activists and rebel fighters from the city have been kidnapped, killed or forced to leave the city for other parts of Syria or to Turkey.
For several months, the Assad regime rarely targeted Raqa, apparently reserving its heavy-duty firepower for parts of the country under rebel control. However, late this summer, it intensified its airstrikes against IS positions in eastern and northern Syria. On September 6th, 53 people died due to air raids on Raqa, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported, with at least 31 of them believed to have been civilians.