Air strikes have killed at least 27 people in rebel-held areas in northwestern Idlib province in Syria. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday that at least 21 people, five of them children, were killed in raids, including on a marketplace, in Idlib city.
It said, aerial bombardments in the town of Maarat al-Numan, about 30 kilometers south of Idlib city, killed another six people. Idlib city and the province by the same name is held by a coalition of rebel groups, including al-Nusra Front, a powerful Syrian group with ties to al-Qaeda. Several monitoring groups, as well as Turkish authorities accused Russia of conducting these air strikes, but Russian authorities denied any involvement.