More than 30 dead in Syria regime air raids, says NGO

Syrian army tanks pursue opposition fighters in the Latakia province, western Syria Syrian regime air strikes killed more than 30 people Saturday in the Latakia province, bastion of the ruling Assad clan, and the northern city of Raqa, a monitory group said. Seven children were among at least 13 civilians killed in an air raid on Raqa, the only provincial capital in rebel hands, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It said the raid was apparently aimed at positions of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) which largely controls the city.
ISIS has been the dominant force in the city since its capture by rebels in March. Residents have held several protests against the policies of ISIS which follows an extremist line of Islam, according to the Observatory.
An Italian Jesuit priest and activist, Paolo Dall'Oglio, who hoped to negotiate with ISIS in Raqa, went missing in the city at the start of August.
In the coastal Latakia province of northwest Syria, at least 20 people were killed in several air strikes on the Sunni rebel town of Salma in the Jabal al-Akrad area, the Observatory said.
At least six of those killed were Syrian rebel fighters, while four were foreign volunteers, said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory.
Latakia province is a stronghold of the Alawite minority of President Bashar al-Assad, apart from rebel-held pockets.
Islamist rebel forces have captured about 10 Alawite villages in the Jabal al-Akrad, a mountainous area of the province. The army has hit back, sparking fierce fighting that has left dozens dead on both sides, according to the Observatory.
Earlier on Saturday, Syrian government troops clashed with opposition Free Syrian Army fighters as they tried to gain control of Aleppo International Airport.
 The fighting comes after reports on Tuesday that rebels, some of them from the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), captured the key Minnigh air base in the northern province.
 Meanwhile, Syrian opposition fighters continued to battle regime forces in Latakia, where the military killed at least 20 people overnight, according to the British group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
 In the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, opposition figures announced on Saturday that the Free Syrian Army had gained control of the Baath Party headquarters and a public services building.
 In the capital on Saturday, Colonel Ali Mohsen, director of a military driving school on the outskirts of Damascus, was killed by 11 former conscripts after they defected from the regime army, activists said. Governmental troops bombed several neighbourhoods in the capital, including Qaboun, Asali and Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, while Barzeh and Jobar were hit by government airstrikes which left many dead and wounded.
 
Additional source: AFP