Air strikes on Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate in the country’s northwest on Tuesday killed 26 people, including civilians, a monitoring group said. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 air strikes battered the headquarters of Fateh al-Sham Front and the surrounding neighborhood in Idlib city at dawn on Tuesday.

“Ten civilians, mostly women, are among the dead,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

“The toll could rise because some people are trapped under the rubble and unaccounted for,” he added.

Abdel Rahman said the raids were likely carried out by Russian warplanes — allied with Syria’s government — or by a US-backed air coalition.

Fateh al-Sham has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks in Idlib province, the only remaining opposition-held province in war-ravaged Syria.

Bombing raids against the group have escalated, including one US strike in January that killed more than 100 fighters at a training camp in Idlib province.

Rebel groups have held Idlib province since the spring of 2015, four years after conflict first broke out in March 2011

Source : Morocco World News