Air strikes killed 23 people at a holiday spot in northwestern Syria on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, the last day of a 72-hour cease-fire announced by the Syrian army. A riverside area in the town of Darkush, near the Turkish border, in western Idlib province was targeted in the air strikes. Idlib province and city are under the control of rebel groups including the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. The dead and injured had come from towns around the province to enjoy the Eid holiday weekend, witnesses and the Observatory said. The death toll, which included 10 women and two children, is likely to rise due to the number of severely injured people, according to the Observatory. "It was a terrifying sight because most of the people had fallen into the river next to the spring. There were children, women, men," Ahmad Yaziji, a civil defense chief in the nearby town of Jisr al-Shughour, said. The civil defense are first responders in opposition-held territory of Syria, now in its sixth year of civil war. "The area which was targeted had no military positions in it at all and never had done," Yaziji said. A 72-hour cease-fire was announced by the Syrian army on Wednesday, but rebels and the Observatory said there had been little let-up in the violence. On Thursday, government forces took a step toward completely encircling rebel-held parts of Aleppo, capturing ground overlooking the only road into the opposition half of the city and effectively putting those areas under siege. Syrian and Russian jets carry out air strikes across Syria but it was not known who carried out Friday's attack in Idlib. Russia sent warplanes to Syria last year to support President Bashar Assad against rebels seeking to end his rule, and have supported Syrian government forces in a separate fight against Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State) militants further east. Fighting has intensified since a February cease-fire deal unravelled.
