20 jihadis killed in Syria airstrikes

Damascus, July 9 (IANS) As many as 20 fighters from the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria, were killed Wednesday morning in Syrian airstrikes on the northern city of al-Raqqa, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The airstrikes targeted a facility of the IS, an Al Qaeda breakaway group, which is used as a training camp for its fighters in al-Raqqa, Xinua reported citing the observatory.

Two other people were also killed in the airstrikes, according to the observatory.

Al-Raqqa fell into the IS's hands last year and is considered the main base for the Al Qaeda splinter group in northern Syria.

The IS, which declared recently the establishment of an Islamic State in the areas under its control in Syria and Iraq, also controls large swathes of territories in Syria's oil-rich province of Deir al-Zour bordering Iraq on the east.