A man stands amid damages at a site hit at dawn by an airstrike in the rebel-controlled town of Ariha in Idlib province, Syria, February 27, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah
At least 11 people, mostly civilians, were killed on government air strikes in northwest Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.
“Government warplanes carried out air strikes after midnight on several areas in the town of Ariha. The preliminary toll is 11 killed, including at least seven civilians,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the monitoring group head, told media. He added that three children were also killed in the airstrike.
A rescue worker quoted by AFP said that his team had pulled out at least 20 wounded people from the rubble. “We’ve been working since 3:00 am (0100 GMT) to rescue victims still under the rubble of two four-storey buildings that totally collapsed on the residents inside,” AFP quoted the rescue worker as saying.
“We’re still looking for two families, estimated at eight to 10 members each, that are still trapped,” he added.
On Friday, a car bomb by Islamic State on a security checkpoint controlled by Turkey backed-Syrian rebels in a village near al-Bab in Syria had killed 35 civilians.