18 killed in Syria blast

CAIRO: Rescue teams yesterday recovered the bodies of at least 18 people killed in an explosion in a major rebel stronghold in Syria near the border with Turkey.

The explosion took place inside an ammunition depot in the town of Sarmada in the north-western province of Idlib, causing a residential building to collapse, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rescuers were searching for survivors.

Idlib is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist alliance led by an al-Qaeda-linked group.