Airstrikes in Syria's Raqqa kill 8, including 3 kids

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian opposition groups say a new wave of airstrikes on the city of Raqqa — the headquarters of the extremist Islamic State group — has killed at least eight people, including five children, the Associated Press reports.

It wasn't immediately clear who carried out the airstrikes Friday, November 27.

The city in northeastern Syria is the Islamic State group's de facto capital and has become the focus of international airstrikes aimed at the group.

A Raqqa-based activist group that reports on IS, known as Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, said that most of the casualties occurred when warplanes targeted the city's Heten School.

The school, like others in Raqqa, has been taken over by IS.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 12, including the five children.

Russia and a U.S.-led coalition that includes France have been pounding Raqqa.

In an interview with RTL radio on Friday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said "neutralizing and eradicating Daesh" is an objective that all countries agree upon, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym. He spoke after a week of intense diplomacy capped by the French president's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.