Death toll climbs from Syria airstrikes

As many as 60 people have been killed in Russian airstrikes in the Syrian city of Raqqa, most of them civilians.

File photo of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy in Raqqa, Syria Source: AAP

The death toll from purported Russian airstrikes on the IS-held Syrian city of Raqqa has climbed to at least 55, mostly civilians.

The extremist group has controlled the city in northern Syria since 2013 and considers it the capital of its self-styled caliphate.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday 55 people had been killed, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, in a series of Russian airstrikes that hit residential areas in the previous 24 hours.

The anti-Islamic State activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently also said the airstrikes were by Russian warplanes and put the number of deaths at 60.

The IS-affiliated news agency Aamaq said 43 were killed and 60 wounded.