Children among 29 civilians killed in airstrikes on market
BEIRUT: Airstrikes on a market killed at least 29 civilians, including children, in a town in northern Syria on Monday despite a “de-escalation zone” in place there, a monitor said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not immediately clear whether the strikes on rebel-held Atareb had been carried out by Syrian warplanes, or those of Damascus’ ally Russia.
The monitor said three strikes hit the town’s market, adding that the overall toll was expected to rise because dozens of people had been wounded or were still missing after the attack.
A photographer contributing to AFP saw massive destruction at the scene, with rubble from damaged buildings covering the street and panicked civilians carrying away the injured.
Three men helped one of those hit in the attack, his face drenched in blood and his features almost completely obscured.
Nearby, the body of a man in a blue shirt and dark trousers lay where he had died.
Civil defense workers rushed alongside civilians to evacuate the injured, with one man in a thick beanie hat carrying a wailing child in a pink sweater away from the scene.
Elsewhere, the bodies of at least three children were laid out on the ground, partly covered by thick bolts of fabric.
Atareb is in the west of Aleppo province, in an area that is part of a “de-escalation zone” agreed under a deal earlier this year between Syria’s allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey.
The zone mostly covers neighboring Idlib province.
Despite the regime’s recapture of Aleppo city late last year, opposition groups maintain a presence in the west of the province.
On Monday, tribal leaders and residents said Daesh regained control of Albu Kamal, their last stronghold in Syria, after Iranianbacked militias who claimed to have captured the city a few days earlier were ambushed and forced to retreat.
Fighters from Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria who joined forces with Iraqi Shiite fighters crossing the border into Syria were taken by surprise by Daesh forces hiding inside tunnels in the heart of the city they said they had taken on Wednesday, they said.
The Shiite fighters had launched a ground offensive on the city, in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province where the Euphrates river meets, after months of mainly heavy Russian bombardment against the city that killed dozens of civilians and caused widespread destruction.
“Daesh militants began surprise attacks with suicide bombers and rocket attacks after the Iranian militias were duped that Daesh had left the city,” said Qahtan Ghanam Al Ali, a tribal leader in touch with relatives.
Syrian regime troops had on Thursday declared victory over Daesh, claiming it had killed many militants while scores surrendered. It said the capture of Albu Kamal marked the collapse of the militants’ threeyear reign in the region.
The army made no mention of the loss of Albu Kamal but Hezbollah’s media unit said intensive aerial strikes pounded Daesh hideouts in the western countryside of the city.
The offensive was spearheaded by Hezbollah forces fighting inside Syria alongside an array of Iraqi and Afghan Shiite militias that had entered from Iraq, a commander in that alliance told Reuters.