US-led coalition jets pound Islamic State stronghold in Syria
BEIRUT - The US-led coalition has carried out more than a dozen airstrikes overnight in and around the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in northeastern Syria, activists said on Friday.
The air raids struck several areas on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa along the Euphrates River. It was the heaviest round of coalition strikes on the city since Islamic State group militants captured a Jordanian pilot after his F-16 jet went down near Raqqa on Dec. 24.
The anti-Islamic State activist group called Raqqa is Silently Being Slaughtered reported at least 13 coalition strikes. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist collective also confirmed the air raids.
