Airstrikes kill dozens in Syria

Airstrikes by the Syrian military killed more than 30 people in the northwestern province of Latakia and the northern city of Raqa overnight, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based organization that generally opposes the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

In the coastal Latakia province, at least 20 people were killed in several air strikes on the town of Salma in the Jabal al-Akrad area, the SOHR said.

SOHR director Rami Abdel-Rahman told AFP news agency early on Saturday that 10 of those killed were believed to be civilians, although many of the bodies were so badly disfigured that it was not immediately possible to identify them.

Abdel-Rahman said the other 10 included six Syrian rebel fighters and four foreign volunteers.

Meanwhile, seven children were among at least 13 civilians killed in an air raid on Raqa, the only provincial capital in rebel hands, the SOHR said.

SOHR said the attacks -- perceived as an effort by Assad to prevent opposition groups from advancing on communities where he has a stronghold -- were aimed at positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which largely controls the city.

ISIS has been the dominant force in Latakia since its capture by rebels in March. Residents have staged several protests against the policies of ISIS, which follows an ultra-conservative form of Islam, according to the SOHR.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the SOHR's account of violence in Latakia or Raqa.

In recent days, rebel forces have captured a number of villages in Jabal Akrad, a mountainous district in the north of Latakia.

Assad's army has hit back by deploying more forces to the region, prompting fierce fighting that has left dozens dead on both sides, according to the SOHR.

The SOHR also said that government troops stormed a village overnight, killing 12 people in Aleppo province.

In other violent incidents, fierce fighting erupted during the night between government troops and rebels in the Barzeh neighborhood of Damascus, the group said, adding that the army shelled both Barzeh and the Jubar districts of the Syrian capital.

A car bomb exploded in Shaghur district in Damascus late on Saturday, wounding several people, three of them children, said SOHR.

Al-Nusra Front and other rebel fighters in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor took control of the offices of Syria's ruling Baath party in the Howeika district, sparking regime bombardment, the Observatory said.

The regime controls much of southern and central Syria, while fighters hold northern areas near the Turkish border and along the Euphrates valley towards Iraq.

The northeast corner of the country is now an increasingly in Kurdish control.

Al Jazeera and wire services