Syrian airstrikes kill at least 14

BEIRUT -- Syrian government airstrikes killed 14 people in the northern province of Raqqa, less than a week after rebels seized the area's provincial capital, activists said yesterday. Meanwhile, the UN's top official for refugee affairs said the number of people fleeing Syria could triple this year if the war continues.

The city of Raqqa, home to a half million people before Syria's uprising, could prove a test case for how rebels administer areas they capture. The rebel groups that led the battle for the city are strongly Islamist, some of them extremists, and videos released over the weekend indicate some fighters have summarily executed prisoners.

Recent government airstrikes show the limits of rebel control. Even if they hold the ground, they can do little about the government's air force, which often bombards areas recently captured by the rebels, killing fighters and civilians alike.

Two airstrikes in Raqqa province killed 14 people on Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A video posted online from Raqqa city showed seven bodies scattered in a street with destroyed buildings nearby. An off-camera narrator says they were killed in an airstrike.

The Observatory said at least seven others were killed in a separate air attack near the province's eastern border.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told reporters in Istanbul the number of people fleeing could increase by "two or three times" by the end of the year if the conflict doesn't end. Last week, the UN said the number of registered Syrian refugees had reached one million.

The UN says more than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.