Nearly 50 dead in Syria air strikes after IS downs plane

At least 48 people, including rebel fighters, have been killed after a Syrian government air strike around a town in the central province of Homs, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

The bombardment, which left a mother and four children dead, is part of a renewed offensive by Syrian government forces who are pushing north from Damascus toward the rebel-held city of Aleppo near the Turkish border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian army units seized five villages in northern province of Hama, including a strategic road linking several towns, from rebel fighters on Tuesday and Wednesday, Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

In Damascus, which the government has held in firm control since the start of the civil war, the Observatory said the toll in a failed rebel attempt to infiltrate a district adjacent to the capital's Old City had risen to 11 opposition fighters killed.

They were killed in clashes after they entered the Midan neighbourhood through a sewer in the early hours of Monday, security sources told AFP.

Threat of IS, anti-IS coalition 

The airstrikes came after Islamic State fighters shot down a Syrian war plane on Tuesday using anti-aircraft guns, the first time the group has downed a military jet since declaring its cross-border caliphate in June, the Syrian observatory group said.

A photograph posted on a Twitter account of an IS supporter purported to show the burnt-out wreckage of the plane.

"Allahu Akbar (God is greater), thanks to God we can confirm that a military aircraft has been shot down over Raqa," another account said, congratulating the "lions of the Islamic State"

Hours after the plane was shot down, President Bashar al-Assad met on Wednesday with Iraqi national security adviser, Faleh al-Fayad to discuss efforts to “confront terrorists” and “bolster cooperation between Syria and Iraq.”

Also on Tuesday, Mohammad al-Lahham, the speaker of Syria’s Parliament, reportedly sent letters to US congressional leaders asking them to reconsider US President Barack Obama's anti-IS strategy which includes air strikes against the militant group in Syria. Al-Lahham also urged lawmakers to see Syria as a partner, the New York Times reported. 

The US has so far slapped down any suggestion of working with the Assad government to confront IS. 

Neither Syria, nor Iran were invited to a meeting in Paris on Monday which gathered together European and Arab leaders to discuss the military offensive against IS.