DAMASCUS: As many as 45 people were killed in Russian airstrikes on a rebel-held area of North-western Syria.
As per details, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russian warplanes bombed the rugged Jabal al-Akrad region of Latakia province.
The commander of a Western-backed Free Syrian Army brigade and the families of rebels were among the dead, it added. Russia said it had targeted Islamic State militants in Latakia.
However, activists say the jihadist group has little or no presence in the coastal province, which is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect.
