Russia air strikes kill 10 civilians in northwest Syria

KAFRANBEL, Syria: Air strikes by Syrian regime ally Russia have killed 10 civilians including five children in a northwestern jihadist bastion, a monitor said on Monday, hours after Moscow announced a ceasefire there.

The Russian army said the air raids overnight on the town of Kafranbel, in Idlib province, came after it pinpointed the area as the launchpad for rocket fire on its key Syria airbase of Hmeimim.

Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, controls a large part of Idlib province as well as parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. The jihadist stronghold is supposed to be protected from a government offensive by a September buffer zone deal, but regime and Russian bombardment has increased there since late April.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian air strikes overnight killed five children, four women, and one man in Kafranbel. The raids hit near a hospital in the town, knocking it out of service, the Britain-based monitor said.

An AFP correspondent saw five homes on the edges on the town that were destroyed or damaged after the strikes. Survivors picked through the debris to save the belongings they could, the reporter said, while a young man covered in dust from head to toe leant against a wall, shell-shocked after his father was killed.

Umm Wasel narrowly missed the air strike on her home after relatives invited her over to break her daily fast of Ramazan with them. "I came back at night to find my home devastated," said the 72-year-old, dressed in a long red robe and a black scarf covering her hair.