Islamic State fighters killed as France leads air strikes on Raqqa

Islamic State militants are stiffening their defenses for a possible assault on their de facto capital of Raqqa, as global airstrikes intensify on the Syrian city in retaliation for the Paris attacks.

Five hundred Islamic State group fuel trucks have already been destroyed by Russian forces, according to military spokesperson Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov.

France and Russian Federation engaged in unprecedented joint strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria on Tuesday, the latest in a flurry of diplomatic and military fallout from the deadly terrorist strikes in Paris last week.

Former residents say ISIS fighters are hiding in civilian neighborhoods and are preventing people from fleeing.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most died when checkpoints around the city were hit.

The city is palpably more shaken than after attacks in January which killed 17 people, including at the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and a Jewish supermarket.

On a visit to Paris to show his solidarity after the attacks, US Secretary of State John Kerry said a “big transition” in Syria was probably only weeks away after an agreement between deeply divided countries such as Iran, Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia on a path to elections in Syria at weekend talks.

“There were networks of folks in Raqqa endeavoring to conduct similar attacks in the U.S. We killed majority”, the official said.

After IS claimed responsibility for Friday’s carnage in Paris that killed at least 129 people, there are calls for even stronger action in Syria. Numerous group’s command posts in Raqqa were identified long ago, but they are in places that get heavy civilian traffic or where the Islamic State is holding civilian prisoners, like the main security office known as Point 11, inside a soccer stadium.

Four strikes near Raqqa struck at least three Islamic State positions on Tuesday, according to a coalition statement. A Syrian government supporter from Raqqa who now lives in Beirut and describes himself as a kind of freelance informant for government forces, said there had always been airstrikes in or around Raqqa almost every day.

Russia’s FSB is offering a $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of those responsible for downing the aircraft in Egypt, state-run RIA Novosti reported, citing the security service’s press office. By one estimate, these secret operations have killed more than 50 Islamic State operatives who were believed to be attempting to organize attacks against US targets around the world, including inside the U.S.

Bortnikov said that a homemade bomb with the explosive equivalent of as much as 2.2 pounds of TNT had been smuggled onto the plane.

Kerry told reporters afterwards that Islamic State was losing territory in Syria and Iraq, while the Western-backed coalition was gaining ground.

A second United States official, again speaking on condition of anonymity, later told AFP that Russian Federation had sent one “strike package” of long-range bombers and had also fired “about 20” cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea, all of which appeared to have landed in Syria.