BEIRUT: At least 32 Daesh (ISIS) fighters were killed and 40 more wounded in Syria’s Raqqa province Sunday, in a series of airstrikes believed to be carried out by a U.S.-led coalition targeting the militants, an activist group said.

More than 15 explosions hit Daesh positions in the countryside of Raqqa province and near its stronghold, Raqqa city, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, said the casualty figures were collected from a single hospital and the final toll from the airstrikes could rise.

The Coalition said it hit Raqqa and other areas of northern and eastern Syria Sunday.

In central Syria, at least 45 airstrikes, probably carried out by Russia, hit the city of Palmyra, which is also under Daesh’s control, the Observatory said. Injuries were reported, but no details on the casualty toll were available.

The United States and its allies have been bombing Daesh in Iraq and Syria in an effort to drive the group from swaths of territory it controls in both countries.

Britain joined the effort this week after lawmakers approved bombing Daesh targets in Syria. Hours after the vote, British bombers struck oil fields the government says are being used to fund attacks on the West. They made a second round of strikes Friday.

Russia is waging a separate air campaign in Syria, which it launched on Sept. 30 in support of its ally President Bashar Assad.

The Observatory Sunday said 13 civilians, among them two children, had been killed in apparent Russian airstrikes on the town of Zamalka, east of Damascus.

According to the Observatory, Russian strikes have killed more than 1,500 people, including 419 Daesh fighters, but also nearly 500 civilians, since Russia began its campaign.

Daesh rules the territory under its control with an iron fist, brutally punishing those who challenge its authority or violate its harsh interpretation of Islam.

The Observatory said the group had executed a media activist in the city of Deir al-Zor by tying him to two vehicles which were then driven in opposite directions.

Daesh accused the activist of “collaborating with the Crusader coalition” after discovering broadcasting equipment during a raid on his home, the Observatory said.

Local activists have become a key source of information about life under Daesh, with journalists unable to access territory it controls.

The Observatory also reported violent clashes Sunday around the city of Al-Qaryatayn, in Homs’ countryside, between Daesh, the army and Hezbollah forces, backed by the regime and Russian airstrikes.

Meanwhile, Syrian state news agency SANA said at least 55 Daesh and Jaish al-Islam militants were killed in Syrian army operations, with aerial backup, in the Hama and Idlib provinces.

A military source told the agency that Syrian and Russian sorties targeted gathering of militants in Kafr Zeita town, north of Hama, which resulted in the destruction of a command center.