Syrian air strikes kill 33 civilians

Syrian men unload sacks of potatoes left on an abandoned truck following airstrikes by government forces. Pic/AFP

Regime air strikes have killed 33 civilians in the past 24 hours in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib where government forces are fighting jihadists, a monitor said.

On Monday alone, the strikes killed 16 civilians, including 11 in a vegetable market in the town of Saraqeb, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The 17 others were killed on Sunday in raids on various areas of the province, large parts of which are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is dominated by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate. "Regime war planes have intensified their strikes over the past 24 hours after relative calm due to bad weather," Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman said. Syrian troops had been advancing on Idlib as part of a offensive launched in December with Russian backing.