Air strikes in northwest Syria kill 9 civilians

Air strikes by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally on Sunday killed nine civilians in the last major opposition bastion of Idlib in the country's northwest, a war monitor said.

Moscow-backed government forces have upped their deadly bombardment of the jihadist-dominated region in recent weeks, chipping at its southern edge and causing tens of thousands to flee their homes. Seven of those killed Sunday were members of the same family in the town of Sarmeen, though it was not immediately clear whether the government or Russians carried out that strike. Rescue workers pulled the bodies of a nine-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy from the debris of a crumpled two-storey building, an AFP correspondent in the town said.