Syria: Airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib village kills 44; Russia accused

Situation in war-ravaged Syria has turned tense as airstrikes on a village in Idlib, Syria's rebel-held province, have left at least 44 dead on Thursday, June 7, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday, June 8, Reuters reported.

Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the UK-based war monitoring agency said the strikes were carried out by war planes that were likely Russian.

The village they targeted is Zardana in northern idlib and the casualties were the highest in a single attack on the region, the observatory said, according to Reuters. The deceased included 11 women and six children, the report added.

The death toll was expected to go up as some of the 50 injured in the strikes were in serious state, the observatory added. Rescue work was underway to find survivors from under the ruins, the report said.

Northwestern Idlib is the most populated part of Syria which is still under the control of insurgents fighting Bashar al-Assad's government which has the backing of Russia and Iran and has allegedly targeted its own people, even through the use of poisonous gas.

Russia, meanwhile, refused the charges, saying the allegations had little to do with reality.

"All the reports of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (the other version of the name of the Syrian Human | Rights Monitoring Center) and While Helmets that a Russian plane allegedly delivered an airstrike on June 7 in the area of the community of Zardan in the province of Idlib have nothing to do with reality," the Russian defense ministry said in a statement, Al-Masdar News reported.

It further said: "According to available information, there was fierce fighting in the past twenty-four hours in the said district of the province of Idlib between a large formation of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization [outlawed in Russia] and the Jaysh al-Ahrar irreconcilable opposition grouping with the use of heavy artillery guns."