Overnight air strikes killed 28 people, including four children, in a village in rebel-held Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. Rescue workers have said Syria and Russia have killed scores of civilians in air strikes that began after insurgents launched an offensive against government-held areas in the north west of the country on September 19. The Russian and Syrian militaries say they only target militants and deny killing civilians.
Dominated by the jihadist group formerly known as the Nusra Front, the Idlib region had seen a six month lull in air strikes until the latest escalation.
However, the overnight air strike targeted the village of Armanaz a few kilometres (miles) from the Turkish border. The Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue service operating in rebel-held areas, put the preliminary death toll at 26.