At least 12 children killed in Syria in one day, in Assad and Turkish attacks

Regime airstrike on busy market described as ‘massacre’ by rescue workers attempting to pull bodies from rubble

An aerial view shows the destruction following a regime air strike on December 2, 2019 in a market in the town of Maaret al-Numan, Idlib (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 12 children were killed in northern Syria by the regime and Turkish forces on Friday, a war monitor and medical groups said.

In Tell Rifaat, shelling by Turkish and allied Syrian rebel forces killed nine civilians, eight of whom were children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

The munitions fell near a school and wounded 21 people, some critically, with the death toll expected to rise as more people succumb to their wounds.

In photos shared with the SOHR, several lifeless children can be seen lying in body bags. Others are lying on stretchers, with severe wounds and blood-stained clothes.

In one photo, a young child’s leg has been partially ripped from his body.

Tell Rifaat is home to a large number of internally displaced people (IDPs) who have been forced to flee advancing Turkish forces.

Turkey has launched a series of cross-border offensives against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, a group which it classifies as a terrorist organisation for its links to Kurdish separatists in Turkey.

The SDF was, however, one of the US’s most significant partners in the fight against Isis, and lost some 10,000 of its own fighters in the years-long battle against the caliphate.

On 9 October, Ankara began a military operation to establish a “safe zone” 20 miles deep and 300 miles long across the border, despite international condemnation.

Soon after, Turkey agreed with Russia to conduct joint patrols up to six miles from the border in the areas seized in the invasion.

But Nato power Turkey, and its allied Syrian fighters, have since been accused of carrying out a number of atrocities against the Kurdish population in lands under its control, including summary executions and the mutilation of corpses.

This has raised concerns that the Kurdish population is the target of an ethnic cleansing campaign as Ankara attempts to “Arabise” the Kurdish-majority north and forcibly transfer Syrian Arab refugees in Turkey.

Meanwhile in Ma’arat Al-Numan, some 60 miles south of Tell Rifaat, what is believed to be regime airstrikes killed at least 11 civilians, including four children, according to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS).

The airstrikes targeted a busy market and wounded several others.

Aerial images from the scene show the destruction of a multi-storey building with bloodied corpses among the rubble.

“The bombardment of the market that was packed with civilians led to a massacre and wide destruction,” the Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said on its Facebook page.

Syrians try to recover victims caught in the rubble following a regime airstrike (AFP/Getty) (AFP via Getty Images)

The strike comes amid an uptick in violence in Idlib, Syria’s last opposition stronghold, where fighting between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters killed dozens on both sides over the weekend.

Since 30 April 2019, when Damascus launched yet another offensive on Idlib, at least 4,771 Syrians have been killed, according to the SOHR.

Separately, three Russian military police officers were wounded in a blast in northern Syria on Monday, Russia’s Defence Ministry said.

The officers were exploring new patrol routes in an armoured car when an improvised explosive device exploded, the ministry said.

The explosion occurred in the border region of Kobani, where Russian and Turkish forces have been conducting joint border patrols since last month.

They agreed to conduct joint patrols up to six miles from the border in the west and east of areas seized by Turkey in its invasion of northern Syria.