LEBANON: At least 14 children were among 21 people killed in an air strike in Syria's northwestern Idlib province at dawn on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
The monitor said the strikes were believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes on the provincial capital Idlib city, which is controlled by jihadists and their Islamist rebel allies.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw two buildings completely destroyed, adding that the buildings had been housing people displaced from Aleppo province.
Local civil defence workers used bulldozers and their hands to clear large mounds of rubble.
Yahya Arjah, a member of the White Helmets group, said they had pulled two people alive from the rubble.
The Observatory said the strikes hit the Al-Qasur neighbourhood of the city, which is the capital of surrounding Idlib province.
It said 14 of the dead were members of a single family, and also said the dead included people displaced from the north of Aleppo province, which neighbours Idlib.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began six years ago with anti-government protests.
Russia began a military intervention in Syria in September 2015, and in the past has dismissed allegations of civilian deaths in its strikes.