BEIRUT -- Airstrikes in Syria targeting the Islamic State extremist group's declared capital of Raqqa killed at least 18 civilians, including two children, activists said Wednesday.
The strikes, which the activists blamed on Russian and Syrian warplanes, came after an advance toward the city by government forces stalled, with the extremists taking back large areas in the surrounding province.
Syrian President Bashar Assad, meanwhile, designated a new prime minister to form a government after April's parliamentary elections. The vote, held only in government-controlled areas, was dismissed by the opposition and much of the international community. Imad Khamis, the incumbent electricity minister and a member of Assad's Baath party, was chosen as prime minister-designate.
Also Wednesday, activists reported the release of a prominent Assyrian politician detained by the government for more than two years. The Assyrian Human Rights Network said on its Facebook page that Gabriel Moshe Kourieh had been detained since December 2013. He was based in Qamishli, in eastern Syria, and had been a vocal supporter of the revolt against Assad.
The strikes on Raqqa took place on Tuesday evening. Activists from the group known as Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, which relies on residents to smuggle news out of Islamic State-held territory, said the air raids killed 18 people and wounded 28.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the toll at 25 civilians, including six children. Different casualty tolls are common in reporting on Syria's civil war, now in its sixth year.
Both activist groups blamed the Russian and Syrian air forces for the raids, saying Syria and its ally Russia were pummeling the Islamic State out of frustration at government losses earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. The U.S.-led coalition also has been bombing Raqqa.
Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently said at least one of the airstrikes targeted a neighborhood popular among foreign fighters.
The Islamic State group retook large areas of Raqqa province from government forces Tuesday, just two days after Syrian troops managed briefly to seize Thawra, an Islamic State-held oil field, and threatened to retake the Tabqa air base from the militants.
The government's campaign to retake Raqqa began June 2. On Sunday, Syrian government forces advanced to within 6 miles of the Tabqa base. The base, located 28 miles from Raqqa, holds strategic and symbolic value in the government campaign.
The base was the last position held by government forces in Raqqa province before Islamic State militants overran it in August 2014, killing scores of detained Syrian soldiers in a massacre the militants documented on video. Raqqa was the first city to fall to the Islamic State.
A Section on 06/23/2016