Air strikes by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed at least 26 people, most of them school children, in a village in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province yesterday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said.
The raids hit a residential area and a school in Haas village, the Syrian Civil Defence rescue workers network said on its Facebook account.
Idlib, near Aleppo in northwest Syria, contains the largest populated area controlled by rebels.
The Civil Defence network, which operates in rebel-held areas in the country, said 20 of the dead in yesterday’s attacks were children.
Photos taken at the scene showed buildings with walls reduced to rubble, including what appeared to be the school with upturned desks and chairs covered in dust.

Wounded Syrian children await to receive treatment at a hospital following a reported air strike on the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said the warplanes had struck several locations in Haas including an elementary and middle school.
The White Helmets civil defence group released pictures of four rescue workers clambering over a mound of rubble in search of survivors after what it said was a “double-tap” strike on the school.
The raids hit Hass around 11:30am (0830 GMT), an activist with the opposition Idlib Media Centre said.
“One rocket hit the entrance of the school as students were leaving to go home, after the school administration decided to end classes for the day because of the raids,” the activist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Other activists from the province circulated a photograph on social media of a child’s arm, seared off above the elbow, still clutching the strap of a dusty black rucksack.
Shaky video footage depicted rescue workers sprinting towards the site of the raids and pulling a frail, elderly man out of a collapsed building.

Syrian government forces and their Russian ally have been criticised by rights groups for indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure.
The Istanbul-based National Coalition said Russian and regime warplanes “targeted children in their schools, deliberately and intentionally hitting civilians with high-explosive material.”
Seven days of air strikes across the northwestern province had left more than 75 civilians dead and another 150 wounded, it said.

Source: Gulf Times, 27 Oct. 2016