Air Strikes 'Kill 22 Civilians' In Syria

A monitoring group says at least 22 civilians have been killed in air strikes by unidentified planes on an Al-Qaeda-held town in northwestern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 40 others were injured in the July 8 strikes on the town of Darkush, which is held by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and allied rebel groups.

The death toll, which included nine women and a child, is likely to rise as several people were severely injured in the air strikes, the Observatory said.

Syrian and Russian warplanes carry out air strikes across Syria but it is not known which carried out the strikes in the province of Idlib.

On July 6, the Syrian government announced it would observe a 72-hour nationwide cease-fire for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

It was not clear whether cease-fire included areas under Al-Nusra control. Al-Nusra and the Islamic State militant group have been excluded from a broader truce brokered by Moscow and Washington in February.

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa