‘ Russian strikes’ kill 44 civilians in Syria

Six children were among those killed in Idlib province

Beirut, June 8: Air strikes thought to have been carried out by Russian jets on a rebel- held residential area in northwestern Syria have killed 44 civilians, a Britain- based monitor said on Friday.

Six children were among those killed when the strikes hit the Zardana area of Idlib province late Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Russian defence ministry dismissed the Observatory’s reports of strikes on Zardana as having “nothing to do with reality”, in a statement

carried by the TASS news agency.

Zardana is largely controlled by Islamist rebels, with a small presence of the Hayat Tahrir al- Sham alliance led by Syria’s former Al- Qaeda affiliate.

An AFP correspondent at the scene saw volunteers with a crane still searching the rubble in the early morning.

Half a dozen men in civilian clothes helped carry a person in a black body bag away from the site of the strikes, which pulverised several buildings.

At night, dozens of wounded streamed in to the local hospital, including children, women, elderly people and rescue volunteers, the correspondent said.

Dust dashed with blood covered the twisted bodies of the dead.

Most of Idlib province is held by an array of Islamist and jihadist groups with only parts controlled by the Russianbacked government.