Syria army bombing kills seven jihadists in rebel area

BEIRUT: Seven jihadist fighters were killed on Friday in bombardments by government forces in northern Syria, a war monitor said, amid escalating violence in the country´s last main opposition bastion.

“Seven fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham were killed in a double-bombardment by the regime” in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Jihadist group HTS, led by Syria´s former al-Qaeda affiliate, controls swathes of Idlib province as well as parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia.

The Syrian army initially “targeted a HTS military vehicle” in the west of the province, said the Britain-based Observatory, which has a wide network of sources in Syria.

“When a second car arrived to recover the dead and wounded, the bombing began again,” increasing the casualties, the Observatory added.