CHINA TOPIX

11/25/2024 12:02:28 am

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At Least 4 Children Killed in Syrian Airstrike

Warplane

(Photo : Getty Images) Fighting has cut off water supply to the city of Damascus.

Activists said a Thursday air strike in a rebel-held village near the Syrian city of Aleppo left at least nine people, including four children, dead. All the victims were reportedly members of one family whose house in Babka was hit.

According to a monitoring group, at least 22 jihad fighters had been killed in air strikes in neighboring Idlib province. It is not yet clear who is behind the several attacks, which were carried out despite a week-old nationwide truce.

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The truce, which covers government and rebel groups, excludes members of the Islamic State (IS) and rival jihadist group Jabhat al-Sham, which was previously known as al-Nusra until it cut formal ties with al-Qaeda in July.

Pro-opposition Local Coordination Committees and Aleppo Media Center also reported that warplanes carried out airstrikes on Babka. According to the reports, dozens of other civilians were wounded, adding that rescue workers were searching for survivors in the rubble of destroyed buildings.

Some of the attacks were carried out by Syrian government aircraft, while others were conducted by the US-led coalition that is targeting the Islamic State.

A strike on a convoy killed at least 16 members of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, including two of the group's top commanders.

The US-led coalition, however, said that it did not target the area on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Despite a nationwide truce that was brokered by Turkey and Russia, clashes continued to erupt in some areas. One of the areas that has suffered is the rebel-held Wadi Barada, where at least six civilians in the village were killed by government strikes on Thursday.

United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday that five rebel-held villages in the area had agreed to a truce, while two others refused.

Over 5.5 million people living in and around the city of Damascus have not had running water since Dec. 22 last year, owing to damage to the spring that supplies water to the city.

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