At least 21 killed, 100 wounded in bombing by Syria army of northern town - monitor

Civilians walk past damaged buildings in Aleppo's eastern district of Tariq al-Bab on Sept 28, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Civilians walk past damaged buildings in Aleppo's eastern district of Tariq al-Bab on Sept 28, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 21 people were killed and around 100 wounded when Syrian army planes bombed a town in northern Syria that is controlled by Islamic State (ISIS) militants, a group monitoring the war said on Sunday.

Syrian military helicopters dropped barrel bombs and warplanes launched air strikes on al-Bab which lies northeast of the city of Aleppo, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported without saying when the attacks happened.

One of the 21 killed was a child and the death count was expected to rise as some of the wounded were in a serious condition, said the Observatory, which gathers information from a variety of sources in Syria.

US-led warplanes have also been hitting ISIS targets in Syria in a campaign which Washington says is not coordinated with Damascus. The Syrian army previously hit an area near al-Bab in September, saying it had "eliminated a number of terrorists" shortly after US-led strikes started.

There was no immediate report on the latest strikes on Syrian state media.

Since the US-led forces started strikes on Syria more than a month ago, Syria's military has ramped up its own air raids, concentrating on the west of the country and at times targeting territory held by Western-backed rebel fighters.

The US-led strikes have mainly focused on Syria's north and east where ISIS and other militant Islamist groups hold territory in areas bordering Turkey and Iraq.

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