Beirut: The death toll from a series of Syrian government air strikes on Daesh’s stronghold in northeastern Syria has risen to at least 95, making it one of the deadliest attacks on the city of Raqqa in the past three years.

Some of the air strikes on Tuesday struck a popular market near a museum and an industrial neighbourhood, causing many civilian casualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights raised its death toll on Wednesday to 95. Its director, Rami Abdul Rahman, said they include 52 civilians whose names the group was able to document. They include three women and four children, he said. At least 120 others were wounded in the strikes, according to the group.

Other activists, including the Local Coordination Committees and a Raqqa-based collective called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered, estimated more than 100 people had been killed. It was not clear how many militants were among those killed.

The Associated Press could not independently confirm the death toll — one of the worst single-day tolls in the city, which is completely under the control of Daesh.

The Syrian government as well as the US-led coalition frequently bomb Daesh group targets in Raqqa, but it was not immediately clear what prompted Tuesday’s unusually intense attacks. Daesh has slaughtered hundreds of Syrian soldiers in the past few months, and recently posted a video showing what it said was the beheading of more than a dozen Syrian soldiers, including officers.

In Iraq, security forces backed by Sunni tribesmen repelled an assault by Daesh militants on a government complex in the centre of Ramadi, the provincial capital of western Anbar province, said officials. Soldiers, supported by army helicopters, were able to fend off the attack, according to the officials who spoke anonymously because they are not authorised to brief the media.

Daesh militants have overrun a large part of Al Anbar province in a push to expand their territory. The group now controls about a third of Syria and Iraq, declaring the territory as part of its self-described caliphate.