Air attacks hit rebel groups on multiple fronts
BEIRUT — Warplanes struck rebel-held parts of Syria on Saturday, killing and wounding scores of people amid clashes on multiple fronts between government forces and insurgent groups in some of the worst violence the country has witnessed in weeks, opposition activists said.
The air strikes, which some activists said included Russian air raids, concentrated on the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, the central province of Hama and suburbs of the capital Damascus that have come under attack by insurgent groups over the past week.
One of the strikes hit a main street in the Damascus suburb of Hamouriyeh, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 50, activists said. The dead included eight women and children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“They have been hitting Hamouriyeh for days but today they struck an area packed with civilians,” Awis al-Shami of the Civil Defense searchand-rescue group, also known as the White Helmets, said via text message.
The strikes come as insurgent groups have been on the offensive in Damascus and the central province of Hama. Government forces and their allies launched a counteroffensive capturing some of the areas they lost in Damascus and Hama.
Opposition activists also reported air strikes in Idlib province hitting several towns and villages as well as the provincial capital that carries the same name.
The Observatory said a Friday night attack struck a prison run by militants, killing at least 16 people including prisoners and prison staff in Idlib city.
The Syrian National Coalition, one of the largest opposition groups, said the air strikes on Idlib targeted among other things a women’s prison, saying that dozens of people were killed or wounded.
The Observatory and the Civil Defense group said an air strike struck a clinic in the village of Kfar Nubul in Idlib province. They had no immediate word on casualties.