Russia Airstrikes Kill 13, Including 2 Children, In Rebel-Held Syria

Among the dead were at least nine civilians, including two children, with most killed at a fruit and vegetable market in Jisr al-Shugur in the Idlib region.

Russian airstrikes killed at least 13 people in rebel-held Syria on Sunday in one of the deadliest attacks on the country this year. Among the dead were at least nine civilians, including two children, with most killed at a fruit and vegetable market in Jisr al-Shugur in the Idlib region, reported news agency AFP. "These Russian strikes are the deadliest in Syria this year and amount to a massacre," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

According to the Observatory, Russian forces — which back President Bashar al-Assad's regime — were responding to rebel drone strikes over the past week that killed four civilians including two children, as per the report. 

"Russians shells rained on us," Saad Fato, 35, a labourer who survived the strike on the market told the news agency, adding he helped efforts to try to rescue the wounded. 

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"It was indescribable, seeing the dead, the wounded," said Fato, whose hands were still covered with their blood and told the news agency he was unloading tomatoes and cucumbers at the time of the attack.

Plumes of black smoke rose from the site and ambulances, their sirens wailing, rushed the wounded from the market to the hospital, an AFP correspondent witnessed at the scene. 

The Syrian Defence Ministry said in a statement Sunday evening that its armed forces had "cooperated" with the Russian air force in retaliation for attacks over the past few days that killed civilians in Hama and Latakia provinces, as per the report. 

The operation targeted "terrorist positions" in Idlib province, killing dozens and destroying arms depots and drones, said the statement carried by Syria's official news agency SANA.