Suspected Russian raids kill scores in Syrian city

A man walks past damaged cars after air strikes reportedly carried out by Russian warplanes in Idlib city yesterday.

ReutersBeirutAir strikes believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes killed scores of people in the centre of the rebel-held city of Idlib in northwest Syria yesterday, rescue workers and residents said. They said at least six strikes had hit a busy market place in the heart of the city, several government buildings and residential areas. Rescue workers said they had confirmed 43 dead but that at least 30 more bodies had been retrieved that had still to be identified. “There are a lot of corpses under the rubble,” Yasser Hammo, a civil defence worker, said via an Internet messaging system, adding that volunteers and civil defence workers were still pulling bodies out. Footage on social media and the pro-opposition Orient TV station showed makeshift ambulances rushing with injured civilians through an area where people were searching for survivors among the debris of collapsed buildings. One local resident, Sameh al-Muazin, said he had seen mangled bodies in the main Jalaa street of the city, adding that people feared a further round of intensive bombing. “Everyone is afraid that this is just the beginning,” he said. Russia began a major aerial campaign on September 30 in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who earlier in the year had suffered a series of setbacks including the loss of Idlib province and areas near the coast which are of crucial strategic importance. Moscow says its air strikes target Islamic State militants but rebels and residents say they are causing hundreds of civilian casualties through indiscriminate bombing of areas well away from the frontlines.