BEIRUT - At least 16 civilians, among them eight children, were killed on Friday in air strikes on the northern Syrian city of Raqa by unidentified planes, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five women were also among the dead in Raqa, the main Syrian bastion of the Islamic State jihadist group. "The death toll could rise as there are around 40 wounded and missing people," the Observatory said.
The Britain-based Observatory typically identifies aircraft by flight patterns and munitions used. However, it said Friday's strikes could have been carried out "by either the Syrian regime, the Russians, or the coalition led by Washington," referring to the US-led effort to strike IS in Syria and Iraq.
But Aamaq, a self-styled news agency linked to IS, said strikes by Russian warplanes had left 17 people dead in Raqa on Friday. On Monday, Moscow announced it would withdraw the bulk of its air force from Syria after a nearly six-month air war in support of President Bashar al-Assad. It warned that it would continue targeting "terrorist groups".
Russia's military said Friday it was still conducting about two dozen combat sorties per day to back a government offensive to retake the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria from IS. Moreover, the Islamic State jihadist group has claimed the killing of five Russian troops in fighting near the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra.
"The soldiers of the caliphate, by the grace of God, have killed five Russian soldiers and six members" of the Syrian army, IS said in a statement. The group also claimed the killing of several members of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group in the clashes near Palmyra. A website linked to IS, Aamaq, carried a similar claim, adding that one of the Russians killed was a military advisor.
"The fierce battles around Palmyra city in the east of Homs province left five Russian soldiers dead on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as several others from the Hezbollah militia and Afghan Shiite militias," Aamaq claimed.
"Four of the Russian soldiers were killed in Qasr al-Halabat west of Palmyra during an attempt to storm the area that IS forces foiled, while the advisor whose corpse was shown in a video distributed by the agency died (Thursday) in the Dawa area," it added. Aamaq was referring to a video showing the bloodied corpse of a man in military gear that it claimed was the advisor. The footage also shows equipment presumably captured after the clashes, including a customised AK-74M rifle, a helmet and a compass.
A packet of bandages was filmed with instructions written in Russian. IS seized Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in eastern Syria known as the "Pearl of the Desert", last May, sending shock waves across the world. Speaking to AFP, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said "at least one" Russian soldier was killed in recent days around Palmyra.
President Vladimir Putin, Assad's main backer, on Monday ordered the withdrawal of most of Russia's armed forces from Syria. The Russian air force has however continued to strike jihadist targets since the surprise announcement, particularly around Palmyra.
At a press briefing Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not confirm either the presence of Russian advisors around Palmyra or the IS claim of the soldiers' killing.
"The advance (on Palmyra) is carried out by contingents of the Syrian army," Peskov said.
On Thursday, however, Putin had warned that Russia would remain engaged in Syria's war. "Our uncompromising attitude to terrorism remains unchanged," he said, adding that "fierce fighting" was raging near Palmyra.
Putin also named four Russians, including a military advisor, killed in action in Syria since Moscow launched its military intervention on September 30. Previously, the defence ministry's official toll had been three, excluding a soldier who reportedly committed suicide.
A total of 1,799 Syrian civilians including 431 children have been killed in Russian air strikes, according to an updated toll by the Observatory. Another 1,276 IS members have also died, as have 1,567 rebels and fighters from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, it added.
The Observatory accused Russia, a permanent UN Security Council member, of being "a key accomplice in the killing of Syrian civilians, on a daily, continuous basis, using the fight against IS as an excuse". Moscow has denied claims of hitting civilian and non-jihadist rebel targets.