Children among 15 dead in Syria airstrike
BEIRUT: An airstrike on a rebel-held village in northwest Syria hit a poultry farm where several displaced families were sheltering early Thursday, killing at least 15 people including children while wounding several others, opposition activists said.
The activists blamed Russian warplanes for the strike on Maaret Musreen village, which is home to thousands of internally displaced people.
As the meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin got underway, Turkey announced that another Turkish soldier was killed in an attack in Idlib on Thursday, raising the number of Turkish soldiers killed in the past 36 hours to three.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday’s airstrike hit a poultry farm used as a settlement for internally displaced Syrians, killing 15 people including women and children. It said 18 others were wounded.
The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense group, also known as the White Helmets, blamed Russian warplanes for the strike as well. They said 14 people were killed, including five women and two children.
Civil Defense said it had finished recovering bodies from under the rubble by Thursday morning.
Step news agency, an activist collective, said 16 people were killed, including five children, and 18 others were wounded.
Putin and Erdogan underlined the need to reach agreement at the start of the Kremlin talks. The Russian President said they need to work out steps to end fighting and prevent damage to bilateral relations.
The Turkish leader also voiced hope for finding a settlement and pointed at blossoming RussiaTurkey trade.
Just before sitting down with Erdogan, Putin discussed the situation in Idlib with European Council head Charles Michel who met the Turkish president in Ankara on Wednesday.
The Kremlin said Michel informed Putin about the EU’S efforts to block the flow of migrants.
Putin offered his condolences to Erdogan over
Turkish losses in a Syrian airstrike, but noted that Syrian troops also suffered heavy losses.
“We need to discuss the situation to prevent any such incidents and also not to damage RussiaTurkey relations that we cherish,” Putin said. “The world’s eyes are on us,” Erdogan said. “The steps we will take, the right decisions we will take here today will help ease (concerns in) the region and our countries.” A young man who said he survived the attack said he was inside a building with his father when the airstrike hit.