Air strikes on a market killed at least 21 civilians, including children, in a town in northern Syria on Monday despite a "de-escalation zone" in place there, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not immediately clear whether the strikes on rebel-held Atareb had been carried out by Syrian warplanes, or those of Damascus's ally Russia.
The monitor said three strikes hit the town's market, adding that the overall toll was expected to rise because dozens of people had been wounded or were still missing after the attack. A photographer contributing to AFP saw massive destruction at the scene, with rubble from damaged buildings covering the street and panicked civilians carrying away the injured. Three men helped one of those hit in the attack, his face drenched in blood and his features almost completely obscured. Nearby, the body of a man in a blue shirt and dark trousers lay where he had died.