SYRIAN warplanes launched a series of strikes targeting strongholds of the Islamic State terror group yesterday, killing at least 25 people.

Most of the deaths occurred when a missile slammed into a crowded bakery, while a major training camp used by the group was also hit.

The air strikes on Raqqa, Islamic State's stronghold some 400km (250 miles) northeast of Damascus, also hit a building used as an Islamic court, and another of the group's offices. Raqqa is believed to be where IS has kept its hostages, including Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were both murdered by their captors, and Scot David Haines, who is currently held by IS.

At least 16 civilians were killed, alongside nine Islamic State fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rami Abdulrahman, founder of the Observatory, which obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground, said the bakery was run by the militant group. Activist Abu Ibrahim said the local morgue was packed with charred bodies, making identification difficult. He said the dead included at least eight members of one family. Other strikes hit a government finance building that the Islamic State used as its headquarters and another building used as a jail, he added.

Islamic State, which has seized wide expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria, drove the last Syrian government forces out of Raqqa province in late August when its fighters seized an air base, capturing and later executing scores of Syrian soldiers.

The Syrian government strikes were part of an increase in military action against the Islamic State group since it swept into neighbouring Iraq, seizing northern and western swathes of that country and declaring a proto-state caliphate straddling the border.

Shi'ite militiamen have joined with Iraq's armed forces in their battle against the extremist Islamic State group. On Friday, a series of attacks across Iraq killed 17 people, including four Shi'ite militiamen and a Sunni tribal chief.

The deadliest attack happened when a car bomb went off on a commercial street in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite Zafaraniyah district, killing seven people and wounding 15 others. Several shops were damaged.

Earlier, a roadside bomb targeted a Shi'ite militia convoy, killing four fighters and wounding seven in the area of Iskandariyah, just south of Baghdad.

Another bomb went off near an outdoor market in Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Obeidi, killing three shoppers and wounding 12, police said.

In northern Iraq, residents said Islamic State fighters killed Maiser al Waqaa, a Sunni tribal chief, along with two brothers in the village of al Houd, just south of Mosul.

They said al Waqaa ran in parliamentary elections earlier this year but failed to win a seat.

lMEANWHILE, Somalia's government has credible intelligence that Islamic militants are planning attacks following the death of their leader in a US air strike, a top official said yesterday.

In a televised speech, Gen Khalif Ahmed Ereg, Somalia's national security minister, said medical and educational institutions could be targeted. He said the government is vigilant and prepared its armed forces to prevent such attacks.

President Barack Obama confirmed on Friday that Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of al-Shabab, was killed in the US air strike on Monday.