BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — A monitoring rights group says a Russian warplane struck a house on Friday in northwestern Syria near the Turkish border, killing seven civilians, including four children.
Syrian Civil Defense volunteers rushed to the house to remove the bodies under the rubble.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and opposition media outlet Orient TV say the airstrike in Idlib’s town of Jisr al-Shoghour was carried out by a Russian warplane following four other Russian airstrikes in a town further north.
The sources of the airstrikes on Idlib could not be independently verified.
The northwestern region of Syria is home to the country’s last rebel enclave. The province of Idlib is under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaida-linked group, while northern Aleppo province is under the control of Turkish-backed rebel groups.
More than 90% of the population in that area live in extreme poverty, relying on humanitarian aid to survive.
The Syrian government in Damascus, alongside key ally Russia, frequently launch airstrikes in the area.
Turkey has warned it intends to launch a new military operation targeting the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in northwestern Syria. Turkey says the Kurdish-led forces pose a security threat and deem them a terrorist group.
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