Air strikes kill 26, mostly children, in Idlib province

Air strikes by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed at least 26 people, most of them school children, in a village in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province yesterday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said.The raids hit a residential area and a school in Haas village, the Syrian Civil Defence rescue workers network said on its Facebook account.A report on Syrian state TV quoted a military source saying a number of militants had been killed when their positions were targeted in Haas, but did not mention a school.Idlib, near Aleppo in northwest Syria, contains the largest populated area controlled by rebels, both nationalist groups under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Islamist ones including the former Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.The Civil Defence network, which operates in rebel-held areas in the country, said 20 of the dead in yesterday’s attacks were children.Photos taken at the scene showed buildings with walls reduced to rubble, including what appeared to be the school with upturned desks and chairs covered in dust.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said the warplanes had struck several locations in Haas including an elementary and middle school, killing at least one teacher as well as the children.It gave a lower toll of 15 children killed.The White Helmets civil defence group released pictures of four rescue workers clambering over a mound of rubble in search of survivors after what it said was a “double-tap” strike on the school.The raids hit Hass around 11:30am (0830 GMT), an activist with the opposition Idlib Media Centre said.“One rocket hit the entrance of the school as students were leaving to go home, after the school administration decided to end classes for the day because of the raids,” the activist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Other activists from the province circulated a photograph on social media of a child’s arm, seared off above the elbow, still clutching the strap of a dusty black rucksack.Shaky video footage depicted rescue workers sprinting towards the site of the raids and pulling a frail, elderly man out of a collapsed building.The authenticity of the pictures and footage could not be independently verified.Syrian government forces and their Russian ally have been criticised by rights groups for indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure.A leading opposition group condemned the raids.The Istanbul-based National Coalition said Russian and regime warplanes “targeted children in their schools, deliberately and intentionally hitting civilians with high-explosive material.” Seven days of air strikes across the northwestern province had left more than 75 civilians dead and another 150 wounded, it said.