Syria government air strikes claim 28 lives

Beirut

At least 28 people were killed today in Syrian government air strikes on a village in northwestern Idlib province and a suburb of Damascus, a monitor said.

At least 18 people died in government raids on the village of Ehsim in northwestern Idlib province, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based monitor said the toll was expected to rise, with the Syrian Revolution General Commission activist group saying the raids had hit a market.

Most of Idlib province is now under rebel control, after an alliance of opposition groups including Al-Qaeda's local affiliate evicted regime forces from their last strongholds.

Elsewhere, the Observatory said at least 10 people, including two children, were killed in strikes on the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma today.

The monitor said another 50 people were wounded, and that the death toll was likely to rise because a number of those hurt were in serious condition and other residents were still missing under rubble.

Wounded people flooded into the clinic, with one man whose face was caked in white dust bleeding from the scalp through a gauze dressing.

Most of the floor was covered with the injured, some receiving treatment and others waiting, with the rare empty spaces smeared with blood.