Air strikes kill at least 67 civilians in Syria

BEIRUT : Syrian and Russian warplanes have launched a wave of air strikes in northern Syria, killing dozens in areas held by a rebel alliance battling to take control

BEIRUT : Syrian and Russian warplanes have launched a wave of air strikes in northern Syria, killing dozens in areas held by a rebel alliance battling to take control of second city Aleppo.

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The strikes, which began on Saturday and were continuing on Sunday, killed at least 45 civilians in Aleppo and west of the city and 22 more in neighbouring Idlib province, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes were targeting areas held by the Army of Conquest, an alliance of rebel, Islamist and jihadist forces that has mounted a major offensive to seize Aleppo.

“The intensification of the strikes in Idlib is due to the fact that this province is the main source of fighters for the Army of Conquest,” the head of the Britain-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

An AFP correspondent in Aleppo said the strikes were especially intense around the southern district of Ramussa, seized by rebel fighters earlier this month. Nine other civilians were killed in rebel shelling of regime-held western Aleppo on Saturday, the Observatory said.

Aleppo, Syria’s former economic hub, has been divided between a rebel-held east and regime-controlled west since mid-2012.