Air strikes kill 31 in Syria

• 15 ISIS militants among the dead
• NATO allies agree to take on ISIS

Beirut: Syrian air strikes in the jihadist- held northern city of Raqa today killed 31 people, including 15 Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) members, a monitoring group said.

"Regime warplanes carried out eight air strikes targeting Raqa and its surroundings," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.

At least 15 jihadists and 16 civilians including three children and two women were killed. Eight of the civilian dead were from a single family. The strikes come amid a stepped-up campaign by President Bashar al-Assad's regime targeting IS positions in north and east Syria. Meanwhile, the US and key allies has agreed that the Islamic State group is a significant threat to NATO countries and that they will take on the militants by squeezing their financial resources and going after them with military might.

With the Islamic State militants spreading across eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, President Barack Obama noted that the moderate Syrian rebels fighting both the group and the government of Bashar Assad are "outgunned and outmanned." In addition to the action pledged by fellow NATO leaders, he pressed Arab allies to reject the "nihilism" projected by the group. The new NATO coalition will be able to mount a sustained effort to push back the militants, Obama said.