Updated

Activists say Syrian government helicopter gunships have attacked a northern town held by Muslim militants, killing at least a dozen people and wounding dozens more.

The Local Coordination Committees say a barrel bomb dropped by a helicopter targeted a bakery Thursday morning in the town of Al-Bab, killing 12 and wounding dozens.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air raid killed at least 15, adding that the number is expected to rise as some of the wounded are in critical conditions.

Al-Bab is controlled by the Islamic State group that now controls swaths of territory stretching from northern Syria across much of northern and western Iraq.

More than 190,000 people have been killed since the 2011 start of Syria's conflict, now a multilayered civil war.