Syria air raids kill 48 civilians in Idlib

BEIRUT: At least 48 civilians, including nine children, were killed on Saturday in regime air raids on Syria’s northwest province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
“Air strikes by regime aircraft on Idlib city and the towns of Saraqeb and Kafr Awid,” all controlled by rebel forces, killed 48 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
It also said dozens of people were wounded, and some were in a critical condition.
Jihadists from the Islamic State group seized control Saturday of the northern part of Syria’s ancient desert city of Palmyra after fierce clashes with government forces, a monitoring group said.
“IS advanced and took control of most of northern Palmyra, and there are fierce clashes happening now,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He said 13 Jihadist fighters were killed in ongoing clashes near the Islamic citadel in the city’s west.
Abdel Rahman had no details on regime casualties.
Most of Palmyra’s renowned ruins, including colonnaded streets and elaborately decorated tombs, lie to the southwest of the city.
The official Syrian news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that regime forces had prevented IS fighters from seizing a hilltop southwest of the Islamic citadel.
The head of Syria’s antiquities department, Mamoum Abdulkarim, meanwhile voice concern for the ancient site.
“I am living in a state of terror,” Abdulkarim told AFP in a telephone call.
He said IS “will blow everything up. They will destroy everything,” if the enter the site, adding that many of Palmyra’s artefacts, like elaborate tombs, could not be moved.
“If they enter the ancient ruins, it will be worse than when Palmyra was defeated in the time of Zenobia,” said Abdulkarim.
Zenobia ruled over Palmyra — a UNESCO world heritage site — as queen in the third century, but was dramatically defeated by the Romans.
IS began its offensive on Palmyra on Wednesday and inched closer to the ancient metropolis on Thursday and Friday, executing at least 49 civilians over those two days according to the Observatory.
Turkish warplanes on Saturday shot down a Syrian aircraft that violated Turkey’s airspace, media quoted Turkish military sources as saying, but Syrian state television said it was an unmanned drone.
Turkish jets, after taking off from the south of the country, shot down the Syrian craft that had crossed the border into the Hatay region, a Turkish general staff source told the DHA news agency.
“The craft was struck twice but there is no clarity over what it was. Once the identity of the craft has been made clear, the public will be informed,” the source was quoted as saying.
Other sources quoted by Turkish media said it could have been a plane, helicopter or unmanned drone that had been shot down by the Turkish F-16s.
“At the moment, investigations are being made,” a source told the Hurriyet daily, saying the targeted craft had broken into three pieces and crashed on the Syrian side of the border.
Syria meanwhile vehemently denied it could have been a manned aircraft.
“It is not true that Turkish fighter jets shot down a Syrian plane. What was shot down was a small drone flying nearby,” Syrian state TV said, citing a military source.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as one of the main opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying his exit is key to solving the conflict.
Turkey’s forces in March 2014 shot down a Syrian warplane, and the air force shot down a Syrian helicopter in September 2013.