Air strike kills nine in Syria high school: NGO

BEIRUT - Children were among nine people killed in an air strike on a high school in a rebel-held city of northern Syria on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The Syrian air force bombed a technical high school in the city of Raqa, killing nine people, among them children under 18, and wounding several other people," the Britain-based watchdog said.

Raqa, on the Euphrates valley 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of the main northern city of Aleppo, is the only provincial capital entirely in rebel hands.

Captured from government forces on March 6, the city is now largely controlled by Al-Qaeda loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The air strike came after rebels launched an overnight attack on army positions in Nasseriya al-Qalamun, north of Damascus, killing at least 19 soldiers and wounding 60, the Observatory said.

"There were also losses in the ranks of the rebels, who succeeded in capturing several positions," it added, without giving a figure.