At least 63 people, including nine children, have died in air strikes believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes on a town in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.

The raids on Khasham near the city of Deir Az Zor on Saturday were among a series of strikes that also hit two other towns in the past 48 hours, killing scores of people, the monitoring group said on Sunday.

Rabiya advance

Warplanes have also hit Raqqa over the past two days, killing at least 44 people in the city, the Observatory said on Sunday, raising its toll from Saturday after many of the wounded died of their injuries.

Russia launched an air campaign in Syria in September 2015, to support the regime.

Separately, the US has been leading an air campaign in the war-torn country since September 2014.

At least 4,272 people, including 315 civilians, have since been killed in air strikes in Syria, the Observatory said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Residents push a cart near al-Shaar bridge in Aleppo's al-Shaar neighborhood, Syria, January 19, 2016 (Reuters).

Al-Jazeera