John Davison, Reuters

Airstrikes by Russian warplanes on the Islamic State-held Syrian city of Raqqa killed 42 people earlier this week, including 27 civilians, the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

Fifteen Islamic State fighters made up the remainder of the death toll, the Britain-based Observatory said, after a series of strikes on Tuesday that hit the group's Syrian stronghold.

The bombings add to a civilian death toll from Russian strikes, which the Syrian Network for Human Rights, another monitoring group, said on Monday stood at 254 people killed in just over a month.

Beirut/Aleteia (aleteia.org/ar) – How appropriate that this was done by someone from Lebanon, and from the rocks of Lebanon, specifically from Tartej. From these rocks, Nayef Alwan, who is from Aitou al-Zgharta in Lebanon, sculpted the statue of Saint Rita. This statue will be erected at the birthplace of Saint Rita—at the entrance of the town of Cascia, Italy—which is at the intersection of the roads between Cascia and Roccaporena.

Alwan Nayef, of Lebanon, was the winner chosen out of many who had submitted miniature sculptures of the Saint to the town of Cascia. The statue was first flown to Rome, where it had its first stop before it was taken and placed upon its final base.

According to Alwan, the statue was designed, created and carved entirely in Lebanon.

Alwan indicated that the rock that was used originally weighed 76 tons. It was taken from the property of Tartej resident Mr. George Najam. Once the sculpture was completed it weighed 25 tons and stood nearly 20 feet tall. He further indicated that the work had been completed in one year.

By Elise Harris