Russia Airstrikes Claim 13 Lives, Including 2 Children, In Rebel-Held Syria

On Sunday, Russian bombings in rebel-held Syria killed at least 13 people. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the country this year. At least nine civilians were killed, including two children. Most of them were killed at a fruit and vegetable market in Jisr al-Shugur, which is in the Idlib area. “These Russian strikes are the deadliest in Syria this year and amount to a massacre,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain.

According to a report from the Observatory, Russian forces, who support President Bashar al-Assad’s government, killed four civilians, including two children, last week by shooting down rebel drones.

“Russian shells rained down on us,” Saad Fato, a 35-year-old worker who lived through the strike on the market, told a news agency. He also said that he helped try to save the wounded.

“Seeing the dead and the injured was unimaginable,” said Fato, whose hands were still stained with blood from removing tomatoes and cucumbers when the attack happened.

Plumes of black smoke rose from the scene, and paramedics rushed the injured from the market to the hospital as their sirens wailed.

In a statement released Sunday night, the Syrian Defense Ministry said that its armed forces had “cooperated” with the Russian air force in response to attacks in the past few days that killed people in the provinces of Hama and Latakia.

The operation went after “terrorist positions” in the province of Idlib, where dozens of people were killed and arms stores and drones were destroyed.