Syria airstrike on IS convoy kills 40 militants

Air raids on an Islamic State group convoy has killed at least 40 fighters in central Syria during the weekend, a monitoring group said Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said unidentified warplanes hit the 16-vehicles motorcade overnight between Saturday and Sunday in Hama province, killing the extremists.

The Observatory, which monitors the war in Syria and has a network of sources on the ground, was not immediately able to say whether the raids were carried out by Russian warplanes or Syrian regime ones.

"But they don't belong to the coalition led by Washington," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

Charred bodies of IS fighters were found at the scene, he added.

Syrian regime aircraft bombard almost daily the eastern countryside of Hama where IS has positions.

Abdel Rahman said the convoy was hit as it was heading from the self-declared IS capital of Raqa in northern Syria to the Hama countryside.

Russia, a key ally of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has been carrying out a campaign of airstrikes against his opponents since September 30.

Last year, a US-led coalition launched an air campaign against IS which controls swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Total war

The United States is working to avoid the "total destruction" of Syria, and plans a meeting in the coming days with Russian, Saudi and Turkish leaders to seek an end to the conflict, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday.

Washington considers that it bears the responsiblity "to try and avoid the complete and total destruction of Syria", fearing the potential fallout across the region and a possible surge in migration, Kerry said on a stop in Madrid.

"We have a moral interest to try and stop this unfolding catastrophe," he said.

"The threat of many more [refugees] coming if the violence continues and Syria absolutely implodes is real."

Kerry also said he feared the consequences of Russia's air strikes in Syria.

"Our fear (is that)... Russia is simply there to prop up [President Bashar] Assad," he said, warning that Moscow's air campaign might "attract more jihadists to the fight".

If Moscow is willing to "help us find a political solution as well as... fight Daesh [IS], then there is a possibility to try to find a way to another path", he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.