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Jisr al-Shughour (Syria): Russian air strikes killed at least 13 people in opposition-held northwest Syria on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, in the deadliest attack on the country this year.
Among the dead were at least nine civilians, including two children, most of whom were killed in a vegetable and fruit market in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib governorate.
“These Russian strikes are the bloodiest in Syria this year, and amount to a massacre,” he said. Rami Abdel Rahmanwho heads a UK-based company The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Russian forces, which support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, responded to strikes by opposition drones during the past week, which killed four civilians, including two children, according to the Observatory.
Saad Fatou, 35, a laborer who survived the market strike, told AFP he had assisted in efforts to try to rescue the injured.
“The Russian shells rained down on us,” he said, recalling that he was unloading tomatoes and cucumbers at the time of the attack.
“It was indescribable to see the dead and wounded,” he said, his hands still stained with their blood.
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw columns of black smoke rising from the site and ambulances sounding sirens transporting the wounded from the market to the hospital.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense said, in a statement, on Sunday evening, that its armed forces “cooperated” with the Russian Air Force in response to the attacks that took place over the past few days and claimed the lives of civilians in the governorates of Hama and Latakia.
The statement, carried by the official Syrian News Agency (SANA), stated that the operation targeted “terrorist sites” in Idlib Governorate, killing dozens and destroying weapons depots and drones.
He said six civilians were killed in Jisr al-Shughour and three opposition fighters were killed near the Russian airstrikes. Abdul Rahmanwhose collection relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Abdul Rahman said that three other civilians, including two children and an opposition fighter, were killed in a raid on the outskirts of Idlib city.
That fighter was a member of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a Uighur-dominated jihadist group, he said, adding that the parents of the dead children also belonged to that group.
At least 30 civilians were injured in Sunday’s strikes, Abdel Rahman said, adding that the death toll is likely to rise.
Ahmed for writing The Civil Defense in Jisr al-Shughour had reported earlier that the raids had killed nine people, without specifying whether the toll included fighters.
Yaziji described the attack as “a direct attack on the popular market, which provides a basic source of income for farmers.”
The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people and forced half of the country’s pre-war population to leave their homes.
The Assad regime, with Russian and Iranian support, has regained much of the ground it lost early on in the Syrian conflict that erupted in 2011 when it brutally suppressed pro-democracy protests.
Over the years, Russia has been striking the last Syrian enclave of the regime’s armed opposition in the northwest.
But lethal attacks on civilians have been limited so far this year until recent Russian strikes.
On Saturday, a Russian air strike killed two civilians in the Idlib area.
Among the dead were at least nine civilians, including two children, most of whom were killed in a vegetable and fruit market in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib governorate.
“These Russian strikes are the bloodiest in Syria this year, and amount to a massacre,” he said. Rami Abdel Rahmanwho heads a UK-based company The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Russian forces, which support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, responded to strikes by opposition drones during the past week, which killed four civilians, including two children, according to the Observatory.
Saad Fatou, 35, a laborer who survived the market strike, told AFP he had assisted in efforts to try to rescue the injured.
“The Russian shells rained down on us,” he said, recalling that he was unloading tomatoes and cucumbers at the time of the attack.
“It was indescribable to see the dead and wounded,” he said, his hands still stained with their blood.
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw columns of black smoke rising from the site and ambulances sounding sirens transporting the wounded from the market to the hospital.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense said, in a statement, on Sunday evening, that its armed forces “cooperated” with the Russian Air Force in response to the attacks that took place over the past few days and claimed the lives of civilians in the governorates of Hama and Latakia.
The statement, carried by the official Syrian News Agency (SANA), stated that the operation targeted “terrorist sites” in Idlib Governorate, killing dozens and destroying weapons depots and drones.
He said six civilians were killed in Jisr al-Shughour and three opposition fighters were killed near the Russian airstrikes. Abdul Rahmanwhose collection relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Abdul Rahman said that three other civilians, including two children and an opposition fighter, were killed in a raid on the outskirts of Idlib city.
That fighter was a member of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a Uighur-dominated jihadist group, he said, adding that the parents of the dead children also belonged to that group.
At least 30 civilians were injured in Sunday’s strikes, Abdel Rahman said, adding that the death toll is likely to rise.
Ahmed for writing The Civil Defense in Jisr al-Shughour had reported earlier that the raids had killed nine people, without specifying whether the toll included fighters.
Yaziji described the attack as “a direct attack on the popular market, which provides a basic source of income for farmers.”
The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people and forced half of the country’s pre-war population to leave their homes.
The Assad regime, with Russian and Iranian support, has regained much of the ground it lost early on in the Syrian conflict that erupted in 2011 when it brutally suppressed pro-democracy protests.
Over the years, Russia has been striking the last Syrian enclave of the regime’s armed opposition in the northwest.
But lethal attacks on civilians have been limited so far this year until recent Russian strikes.
On Saturday, a Russian air strike killed two civilians in the Idlib area.
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