School pupils die in Syria air raids

Children were gathering outside complex when hit

BEIRUT // Warplanes bombed a school complex in Syria yesterday, killing at least 17 people, mostly children.

The Idlib News network said the raid in the rebel-held province of Idlib took place as the children gathered outside the complex in the village of Hass. It said the death toll was 17.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the death toll as 22, with 14 children and a woman among those killed.

The raid in Idlib – the main Syrian opposition stronghold – came as American and British officials said an offensive to drive out ISIL from Raqqa, its stronghold in Syria, could begin in the next few weeks.

United States defence secretary Ashton Carter and his British counterpart Michael Fallon made the statement days into a US-backed Iraqi offensive on Mosul, the last major Iraqi city under ISIL control.

“It starts in the next few weeks,” Mr Carter said of the Raqqa offensive as he arrived in Brussels for a Nato meeting.

Meanwhile, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that Ankara’s military operations in Syria were aimed at securing control of the towns of Al Bab and Manbij but were not intended to stretch to the city of Aleppo.

“Let’s make a joint fight against terrorist organisations but Aleppo belongs to the people of Aleppo, we must explain this, making calculations over Aleppo would not be right,” Mr Erdogan said. His comments came after forces allied to Syrian president Bashar Al Assad warned Turkey against any advance towards their positions to the north and east of Aleppo, saying such a move would be met “decisively and with force”.

On Tuesday, the Turkish military said, a helicopter crew believed to be with the Syrian Army dropped barrel bombs on Turkish-backed rebels.

It would be Turkey’s first direct clash with Syrian forces since Ankara launched a cross-border incursion in August.

Fourteen children believed to have been killed